AOL Television Thinks 'Outside The Box'

AOL Out of the Box screenshotAOL Television today is expected to launch a new free on-demand Web series named "Outside the Box." In it, cast members from television's most popular programs interview one another using fan-submitted questions.

Outside the Box will be supported by AOL's digital ad business, Platform-A, which will be expected to identify opportunities for advertisers and provide relevant display advertising and content-targeted links on the sites.

"This new series will provide advertisers a new venue for high impact custom solutions while reaching a large scale built-in audience who consume, and then share video on the web," said Mike Rich, SVP at AOL.

Proctor & Gamble was the only ad partnered named at launch.

The debut episode, featuring Kate Walsh, Taye Diggs, Audra McDonald and Tim Daly from the ABC series "Private Practice," is set to debut today.

To date, AOL Television has been responsible for some health traffic number. In August, it drew about 14 million unique visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix.

With the emphasis on engagement, the new series invites users to create and submit the questions that will be used during the interviews. The one-on-one format features two or more cast members interviewing one another about the show, their characters and off-the-set happenings.

Each episode will last no more than 10 minutes and also include outtakes and viral clips. AOL Television will debut episodes periodically.

Forthcoming episodes include "Desperate Housewives" with Felicity Huffman and Doug Savant, "Dirty Sexy Money" with Lucy Liu and Peter Krause, "Life on Mars" with Michael Imperioli and Jason O'Mara and "Scrubs" with Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison.

The series will be filmed remotely or at AOL's studios in Los Angeles or New York.

AOL Television isn't the only AOL property with new programming. AOL Money and Finance will be featuring Bloomberg Television video. AOL is the first outside financial site to host Bloomberg multi-media content, according to the financial news network.Twenty new video clips will be featured each weekday.

The new relationship allows advertisers reach across AOL and Bloomberg Television content with a single campaign. Advertising on AOL's site will be sold by, Platform-A In addition to the Bloomberg content, AOL Money & Finance also features video from CNBC and other partners

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