• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 31, 2007

Broadcast networks don't just rely on outside companies for online content. They've also been dabbling with original content on their Web sites, developing a slew of low cost programs.

CBS, for one, has launched a "Big Brother" talk show, as well as other Internet shows in conjunction with "Jericho" and "Ghost Whisperer." Later this year, NBC will launch some new efforts surrounding its series' "The Office" and "Heroes." Disney-ABC has similar Internet programming efforts.

There also have been myriad Web programs linked to cable shows, such as MTV Networks' Comedy Central "Web Shows" series — which which takes original short programming from independent filmmakers like its Internet film/video distribution company, AtomFilms.

The goal for broadcast and cable networks now is to move beyond amateur user-generated content — something major marketers don't feel comfortable with.

"Right now advertisers really have two choices — quality re-purposed content or user-generated content — which isn't very safe," says Brent Weinstein, CEO of 60 Frames. What's needed, he says, is "original content that has quality and consistency."

Helping 60 Frames start up is the Internet-based advertising agency Spot Runner. That's important because part of 60 Frames' mandate includes original shows that will be backed by major marketers as well as some branded entertainment extensions.

The company, which has tapped film makers Joel and Ethan Coen, promises the kind of talent that broadcast networks demand. But the networks also are investigating less established producers.

For example, MTV Networks' AtomFilms has been using independent filmmakers since 1999. "If successful, we'll sign and pay them," says Scott Roesch, vice president and general manager of AtomFilms. "We have paid out millions of dollars every year."

The question for most original content providers — and for TV network executives in the space — is how to create the type of quality programming that television audiences expect, without compromising the shows' Web roots.

"There is a high premium for polished shows," says AtomFilms' Roesch. "But if it get too polished, it diminishes the authenticity."

The cost of most original Internet content ranges from just a couple of thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. "None of this is hugely expensive," says Ghen Maynard, executive vice president of alternative programming and entertainment content for new media at CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group.

The Web also is serving as an incubator of sorts for TV. Consider the TMZ saga. Years ago, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution launched the syndicated entertainment/news show "Celebrity Justice." The program couldn't draw the ratings or ad dollars needed to make it in traditional TV, but was able to morph into TMZ.com, an Internet destination site that pursued racy entertainment news.

Overhead production costs were ratcheted down dramatically, says Jim Paratore, executive producer at TMZ who served as the president of Telepictures back when "Celebrity Justice" was conceived.

Now, after a couple of years of breaking news stories and high level promotion of the show's talent, infotainment reporter Harvey Levin, on other news shows, TMZ has made the transition back into traditional syndication — albeit with one caveat. "We'll be half of the cost of a typical TV magazine show," said Paratore. "We are trying to keep to the Internet model."

Despite the growth of reality/news/talk shows online, original scripted programming is a ways off for most networks. "I'm not sure there is a market for it right now," says Paratore.

CBS' Maynard agrees, adding that the closest major networks are going to get right now are short, 10-minute videos — sometimes by noted talent. For example, there is the current CBS Web series, "Clark & Michael," starring "Arrested Development"'s Michael Cera and his buddy, Clark Duke. That series focuses on their efforts to make it as writers/producers in Hollywood. Cera and Duke's series is helping to promotionally tout their new Sony Pictures Enter-tainment theatrical movie release, Superbad.

"Any of this [Internet] stuff is designed to be short," says Maynard. "It could become a piece of a bigger show. But there is no point in doing a 30-minute show. Then, you are just doing TV."