ShareThisBy ROB OWEN
Think you've seen every episode of "The Office" if you watched them weekly on TV? Think again.
Over the summer, NBC produced 10 "webisodes" of the comedy for NBC.com. Webisodes are short, three-minute "episodes" made for and available for viewing on the Web.
In recent years, networks have begun offering additional online content that supplements TV shows (character's blogs, chats with actors, etc.); now some networks are encouraging _ or demanding _ additional online content, including webisodes.
Last year networks began offering full episodes of their series online, but a recent Associated Press-America Online poll found that only 1 in 5 online video viewers has watched or downloaded a full-length movie or TV show.
In the YouTube.com era of short, user-generated online videos, the brevity of webisodes may be a better bet for networks until computers and TV sets merge more completely into a single home entertainment center. (That long-awaited convergence could come next year when Apple unveils an extension of its popular iPod line, iTV.)
Not every TV series lends itself to a large online presence, but series that attract younger, computer savvy viewers are obvious choices, said Fox Entertainment president Peter Liguori. "When you look at something like 'American Idol,' '24' or 'Prison Break,' it's a much easier decision to go about doing that."
ABC's "Lost" has been especially ambitious in creating online spin-offs, including a game (chronicled at blogs.abc.com) and building Web sites for the show's fictional Hanso Foundation (www.thehansofoundation.org) and assorted other entities, even a candy bar (www.apollocandy.com) distributed as part of the show's viral marketing.
And it's not just the broadcast networks. During the summer, premium cable channel HBO partnered with Cingular Wireless to make four two-minute "mobisodes" (episodes for mobile phones) featuring the cast of "Entourage."
Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" returns for its third season Oct. 6, and in advance of that, SciFi.com has been premiering a new webisode every Tuesday and Thursday since early September. The short episodes fill in some of the story between the end of season two and the start of season three, as human resistance fighters chafe under their robotic Cylon occupiers.
Beth Comstock, digital media and market development president at NBC Universal (owners of "The Office" and "Battlestar Galactica"), said viewer interest in YouTube shorts has had an impact on the network's online efforts.
"I don't know how long this will last, but there's a real premium on short, interesting video," she said. "At this point, people don't seem to care where it comes from. They want to be entertained, amused ... then they're on to the next thing. That's, perhaps, what's right for this medium. I don't think this is the future of television by any means, but there's demand for it. The lesson to us is we've got to figure out how to get good in this (online) space as well."
The first week of "Galactica" broke records for Sci Fi Pulse, the broadband channel where the webisodes are available, generating 1.2 million streams in one week, more than half the number of streams generated in the entire previous month.
For new shows, CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said the network began talking with producers before their pilots were even greenlit to series.
"We said, We don't know if your show is going to get picked up, but this is an opportunity for you to invest some time to come up with ideas for digital storylines," Tassler said. "Conceptually, we raised the question earlier on so we'd be prepared when the shows went to series."
For CBS's "Jericho" that included coming up with webisodes featuring a character who will eventually show up on the television series. It's uncharted territory, particularly when it comes to union rules.
"The greatest complication is treating everybody justly in terms of labor agreements," said "Jericho" executive producer Jon Turteltaub. "You have television writer agreements, but there are no Internet writer agreements, no (Internet) actor or director agreements."
Fox's Liguori said writing Web content can also be an opportunity for a show's junior writers. "It's a good way for them to exercise their creativity, and ... they're incredibly intimate with the show."
NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said running a TV show is a full-time job, with not a lot of time left for working on digital material. But in the case of "The Office, he said, "there's a lot of digital-friendly people there, so it kind of depends on the staff."
(Reilly's boss, NBC Universal Television Group CEO Jeff Zucker, was less sympathetic: "Don't forget, back in the golden years of television, there were 39 episodes a year with smaller writing staffs. Now we do 22. Are we not as capable? I think there's time to do those things. I don't worry about that.")
Dawn Ostroff, Entertainment president of The CW, said the Internet allows show runners more time to tell their stories at a point in TV history that the amount of program time on the air continues to shrink (now down to about 43 non-commercial minutes per hour).
"They have all these ideas and they can't use all the ideas for the series," Ostroff said. "Our viewers love to spend time online, contemplating what's going on in the characters' lives, talking about the big thing that happened in that weeks' episode. They get so invested and it's not just investing the time in the hour they watch the TV show. I think they can never get enough."
(Contact Rob Owen at rowen(at)post-gazette.com.)
