Eager to jump on the entertainment network bandwagon, AOL made a series of announcements on Monday about its own "entertainment network." Heralding TV legend Brandon Tartikoff as chairman of the board, and the acquisition of soap-creators extraordinaire Lightspeed Media, the announcements are looking to thrust AOL's Greenhouse Studios back into the Hollywood limelight recently hogged by MSN.
"Over time, there are going to be 2 to 30 networks everyone will go to," says Danny Krifcher, president and founder of Greenhouse Networks. "We want to create the category killer for entertainment."
Although AOL was quick to tout Monday's announcements as "news," the deals have been under way for several months. Tartikoff and Lightspeed Media have both been working for AOL since November, when AOL announced its commitment to developing original hybrid projects through a strategic relationship with Tartikoff - of which the first to emerge would be the serial "Beggars and Choosers" from Lightspeed Media. According to those announcements, the programming would be cross-branded with Avon Books and Showtime TV movies, and is being produced on the AOL network and Web sites.
Those plans are now being ramped up: The content in development will be shifted to what is being known for now as the "Greenhouse Entertainment Network"; Tartikoff is being given the title of "Chairman of the Board" (sitting only in an advisory position), and Lightspeed will be brought fully into the AOL fold, with president Scott Zakarin at the helm of all programming. The network will be launched in the fall on the Web and AOL, and will contain both episodic serials, a la "Beggars and Choosers," as well as a nebulous area of "transactions," entertainment news, gossip and interactive features, and the ubiquitous AOL chat. About 60-70 percent of the content will be developed in-house.
"AOL is out to create franchises marketable on the Web as well as on the network," says Mark Mooradian, an analyst with Jupiter Communications. "They definitely have competition with major media companies like Time Warner or E! This is AOL touting their cable model; this is them saying, 'We're Viacom and this is our MTV.'"
While the AOL Greenhouse project already developed more than 50 properties so far on both AOL and the Web, the development of a branded network hinging on Hollywood-style entertainment is new for AOL, and follows on the heels of Microsoft's Hollywood-style entertainment ventures.
MSN has recently been in the spotlight for its M3P program, through which the network has been recruiting Hollywood producers and Web developers to create TV-style shows. In contrast to AOL's old belief that sheer quantity of content was the way to bring in audiences, MSN produced a pared-down network last fall with a smaller number of highly developed shows and a focus on entertainment properties. Now, the Greenhouse Network is following suit. Krifcher says they are now looking to produce 15 properties a year instead of 50.
Also similar to MSN's M3P program, AOL is looking to leverage Tartikoff and LA-based Lightspeed to tap into Hollywood creatives. "AOL as well as MSN are getting more and more attention from talent agencies," says Mooradian, "which is a great thing for this medium. Increasingly, Hollywood connections are playing an integral role."
Zakarin says the network will be tapping celebrities to help draw in a fame-hungry audience, as well as attempting to create its own celebrities through episodic programming. "The biggest difference between what this is and anything else on the Web is that this is going to be personality-driven," says Zakarin. "You're going to care about these people as much as you care about anyone on your favorite TV show."
Lightspeed Media attempted similar Net-celebrity creation with its serial The Spot for what later became the first online entertainment network, American Cybercast. Although The Spot was drawing crowds of 35,000 visitors a day at its peak in 1996, its now foundering after the bankruptcy of American Cybercast.
