• by Shankar Gupta , October 12, 2005

Broadband TV network Heavy.com this week announced a new slate of seven on-demand comedy series, including "Gangster Nanny 911," "Tourettes Cowboy," and "Honey, I Killed the Geezer."

The series consist of three episodes, each of which is three minutes long. Episodes--which Heavy.com calls "machinama"--are made using recorded gameplay from video games, overdubbed with new audio. "Gangster Nanny 911," for example, uses gameplay from Activision's "True Crime 2," while "Honey, I Killed The Geezer" uses gameplay videos from Atari's "Indigo Prophecy." To produce the episodes, Heavy.com entered into promotional deals with the video game producers, all of whom have purchased ad space on Heavy.com.

Heavy.com Co-CEO Simon Assaad said the new slate of programming is aiming to capitalize on the success of a series titled "Pimp My Weapon," created with gameplay video from Sony's popular title, "God of War." Assaad said that "Pimp My Weapon" was streamed roughly 8 million times.

There are display ads around the content, but no interstitial ads in the video streams, Assaad said. "We find it's much more effective to advertise in the context in the environment rather than invading the experience with ads before and after," he said.

For now, Heavy.com is monetizing its fall programming with its normal slate of advertisers, which includes video game and movie industry ads. Assaad said Heavy.com is in negotiations with "blue chip" advertisers to sponsor the fall series. He declined to name any potential sponsors, but said that they were not in the entertainment industry. "There are a lot of other companies that are interested in accessing this audience through the video game market," he said.