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Fremantle launches 'long-tail' comedy site FremantleMedia has confirmed the launch of a new direct-to-consumer web portal that will offer internet surfers online access to its library of comedy programming. The TVComedyClassics.com site launches this month, said David Ellender, CEO at FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME), and is a long-tail play that will exploit an archive including comedy greats like Tommy Cooper and Frankie Howerd and TV series such as George & Mildred, Love Thy Neighbour and Bless This House. The version of the site that is currently online specifies decades from the 1960s up to the 1980s, and four different video quality options, including for portable devices. Programmes will be offered to web surfers on a download-to-own (DTO) or download-to-rent (DTR) basis, following FME's partnership with tech firm Vizumi, the movie downloading service of Arts Alliance Media. Episodes cost 99p to rent and £2.49 to own. Like in the DVD market that the DTO business will surely cannibalise, the service will offer unique extras to each download such as specially filmed episodes, interviews with talent and other bonus content. The site is one of the first moves by UK producers to exploit the hard-won rights to their programming online and directly with the viewers outside any relationship with the broadcasters that originally commissioned the shows. The site "is a new distribution channel for FME and a great way for us to interact directly with our consumers by delivering to them the content they want, when and where they want it," said Pete Kalhan, senior VP of home entertainment and archive sales at FME. He added that it was "just the first in many programme genre portal websites we will be developing." FremantleMedia's UK production division TalkbackThames is also active in gameshows, drama and lifestyle programming. FME, which distributes not only programming made by FremantleMedia companies but also third-parties from the indie sector, said it was "exploring content opportunities with other independent production companies" and is looking to extend the TVComedyClassics brand locally around the world. Other UK producers are also thinking along these lines, with RDF Media's digital arm RDF Digital recently launching a beta version of its RoughCuts.co.uk comedy site, where programming can be purchased on a DTO basis. Ed Waller 6 Aug 2007 © C21 Media 2007 
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