Hollywood startup Strike TV has begun testing its sea legs with a private beta launch.
Similar to Joss Whedon’s internet musical Dr. Horrible, the idea for Strike TV was hatched on the picket lines of the Writers Guild of America strike earlier this year as a way for screenwriters to showcase their inking skills to directors, producers and other content creators– while still retaining copyrights and ownership of their work.
The post-strike web venture has an impressive roll call of talented writers attached to it, including the scribe minds behind How I Met Your Mother, LonelyGirl15, Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Office.
So far, the beta version of the site works a bit like Hulu: Users skim through shows by genre, actor or director and short advertisements screen before each episode. (Teaser reel embedded.)
Viewers can also subscribe to series feeds, rate and comment on videos and engage in show discussions in dedicated forums on the site — a smart move to keep the audience engaged in the project.
So far, programming is limited to a few premiere episodes of series, including: Global Warming, an off-kilter romance between Saturday Night Live star Kristen Wiig (pictured) and The Daily Show‘s Aasif Mandvi; dramatic murder mystery Unknown Sender; and teen horror show 5 or Die, created by Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child’s Play).
More episodes and new shows will roll out over the next few weeks and the hard, public launch is expected to happen later this month.
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