View Full Version : Fox powers Web video with 15 Gigs


PSound
09-21-09, 07:18 PM
20th Century Fox is the latest studio to go online with original series.

The studio quietly launched Web development division 15 Gigs (a play on Andy Warhol’s 15 seconds of fame) this summer with a handful of new series on YouTube and Hulu and even more in development.

Wednesday, it launches two new series—Heart Felt and Ashley the Wise—at the New York Television Festival.

Although most of the series will start out on the Web, Fox hopes some will develop a strong enough following to make the leap to DVD, TV and other platforms, said Gabriel Marano, VP of programming for Fox Television Studios. Marano is heading 15 Gigs with Ilsa Berg, Fox TV director of programming.

Fox’s TV division set up 15 Gigs as a development division, a place to incubate new talent and test more experimental ideas from higher profile talent that might not find an easy place on TV.

“If they migrate to TV, that’s fantastic. If they don’t, it’s OK, because it’s a safe place to experiment,” Marano said.

Ashley the Wise, a post-apocalyptic comedy in the tone of Clueless narrated by Bruce Campbell and created by Burn Notice writer Mike Horowitz, is one of those shows that Marano said likely wouldn’t have gotten a green light if it were originally pitched for TV. The genre-mixing show was instead developed through 15 Gigs for the Web, but Marano said it turned out so funny that the studio is now pitching it to TV networks.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6698090.html