AOL Launches Web Series with Electus, Next New Networks, Obama

I told you AOL was going to get serious about web series. Mike Shields at Mediaweek reports the global internet services and media company is launching three new, daily original programs starting Monday, November 1. Those include:

You’ve Got
A play on AOL’s contribution to modern America’s lexicon of slogans that features a 45-second monologue “conducted by various celebrities and average citizens,” including Kelly Ripa, Elmo, and Jon Stewart’s most famous Daily Show guest, President Barack Obama.

AOL Daybreak
Wallstrip and Moblogic alum (and new mom!) Lindsay Campbell plays host on this morning talk show. Electus, Ben Silverman‘s next generation studio, will produce the series, which Shields writes AOL execs describe as “like morning radio on the Internet.”

The One
Next New Networks will produce this series, set to air in the afternoons and feature “celebrities, comedians, and AOL staffers discussing the biggest story of the day in two-minute sessions.”

All three series will debut on a

brand new AOL.com. AOL will highlight the series on the homepage and leverage its 104 million monthly unique visitors to ensure the programs get good views.

It’s about time. I’ve long wondered why the internet’s top destinations (mainly AOL and Yahoo) haven’t used their massive traffic to promote their own programming in meaningful ways. I suppose at any corporation the size of AOL, that type of shift in strategy could only come from someone in a position on one of the higher executive echelons. Basically, it took bringing on David Eun to effect change.

Ever since David Eun took over as president of AOL’s media and studios division, the company’s undergone major overhauls. Eun’s overseen a reorganization of AOL’s properties into 17 advertiser-friendly verticals and is scaling up original content production.

What does this all mean for AOL web series? You should still expect to see more announcements like this one.production