The BBC recently revealed that 40% of fans of BBC3’s hit comedy The Mighty Boosh watch the show via iPlayer, the corporation’s broadband TV catch-up service, not to mention the hundreds who tune in via YouTube. With amateur comedians springing up left, right and centre on the web, could broadband do the same for alternative comedy as Radio 4 did for Goodness Gracious Me and Little Britain?
A new online comedy for young Mums, launched by iVillage UK and Freemantle Media (owners of X Factor, The Apprentice and apparently everything) suggests this may be the case. Called Parenthood, the 12-week series will tell the story of five parents through a mix of short-form video blogs, written blogs, photos and message boards, according to Variety magazine. Parentshood will be the first online series that targets the parenting generation – women and men in their late twenties/early thirties that are more commonly reached via traditional media.
However the internet is a powerful medium amongst this audience with iVillage.co.uk alone reaching over three million women per month. Around 20-30 episodes will run each week, so that content always stays fresh. While initially available only in the UK Freemantle hopes to release the format internationally later this year.
“We see signs that this area is really taking off,” said Gary Carter, president of FremantleMedia Creative Networks. “It’s all coming to fruition at the same time.”
Freemantle’s new-media division FMX has already experimented with online stand-alone entertainment in the US with the reality show “LoveRace”, developed for video site Heavy.com.
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