• Forbes, Friday, September 8, 2006 12 PM

With advertisers clamoring for short bits that can be placed on popular video-sharing sites, like YouTube.com and MySpace.com, Big Media outfits like NBC Universal, Viacom and Time Warner are gearing up to create short shows for the tiny screens, from iPods to cell phones. The people at Sci Fi, which is owned by NBC Universal, just completed 10 episodes of a miniature "reimagined" version of the 1970s series "Battlestar Galactica." At the offices of Viacom's MTV Networks in Times Square, two entire floors have been handed over to a burgeoning digital-media business. Employees craft various types of fast-blitz bits for Web sites run by MTV, VH1 and other channels. "It's like programming for the attention deficit disorder generation," says MTV Networks film and music executive Van Toffler. "Give it to them quick, because they're going to watch it on the run." MTV just struck a deal with Google, which will distribute MTV's video programs to hundreds of other Web sites.

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