The term "category killer" is ubiquitous in conversations with the creators of Entertainment Asylum, the upcoming entertainment network from AOL's Greenhouse Networks. Slated to launch in October and officially named as of last week, Entertainment Asylum is hoping to be the ESPN SportsZone of online entertainment - and AOL is apparently putting out the cash to try to make it so.
"It will have very high production costs," says Charlie Fink, CCO of Greenhouse Networks, who wouldn't divulge specifics. "The budget is more than four times more than AOL has ever spent developing an original content brand."
Greenhouse Networks, long known as the development studio of AOL, has recently been refocused to build entertainment properties of "massive scope" not just for AOL, but for the Web, TV, print, and it is hoped, film. To do so, Greenhouse has brought in TV luminary Brandon Tartikoff to work on cross-media deals, and earlier this spring picked up Lightspeed Media, the entertainment company from Spot creators Scott Zakarin and Troy Bolotnik.
Entertainment Asylum will be the first product to come out of the revised Greenhouse Networks. The ambitious project will consist of "personalized" entertainment services, much like Sidewalk or the online version of TV Guide, that will allow users to find out when movies are coming to town or when favorite TV shows are on; entertainment news, like E or Mr. Showbiz; as well as live webcasts.
The network will also include microsites on specific genres such as sci-fi, action, comedy, pulp, cult, and horror.
As typical in a Zakarin/Bolotnik production, it is hoped that community will play a huge part (already, they are leveraging the avid SpeakEasy community that formed around their previous creations Grape Jam and The Spot). Beggars and Choosers, a Lightspeed episodic in development at Showtime, may also be included.
At the core of the site will be the escapades of the "Screen Team" - four Hollywood actors cum comedians cum Lightspeed Web-soap stars now turning entertainment reporters - who will take adventures behind the scenes of studios, hang out with stars like Adam Sandler or John Leguizamo, and bring in special celebrity guests to chit-chat with the Asylum audience.
"Imagine if the cast of Seinfeld was working for Entertainment Tonight and they could talk to you and hang out with you on a daily basis," says Zakarin, president of programming at Entertainment Asylum. "This cuts the veneer of Hollywood and tells the intriguing story. That's the episodic: Hollywood."
But although the Entertainment Asylum hopes, of course, to dominate the entertainment realm, it's got stiff competition from numerous equally well-backed entertainment sites. While Starwave's Mr. Showbiz has an established presence and immense site, and E has a cable station to give it that needed edge, Asylum is relying heavily on personality and Lightspeed's understanding of community to differentiate itself from the pack. And then there's AOL's captive audience, which Zakarin anticipates will help them bring in a million users a day.
"It's a competitive field," says Sonya McNair, spokeswoman for Mr. Showbiz, which pulls in 7 million impressions a month. "The strong will survive, and we're certainly there already."
As part of its efforts to compete with networks like CNET or Disney and Starwave, Fink says Greenhouse will launch projects on three other "category killer" fronts in the near future: romance, sports, and women. "Romance" will consist of reworking the popular Love@AOL personals area for a wider audience, "sports" is as yet unrevealed, and "women" will consist of a women's magazine-style site called Electra, targeted at 18- to 49-year-olds (with a focus on thirtyish career types) and incorporating Thrive and AstroNet. It will launch after the Asylum.
