Break to Produce Over 1,000 Original Videos in 2011

Break has been, and presumably always will be the go-to online destination for the kind of sado-masochistic entertainment geared towards 18 to 35 year-old males that make parody videos like this one so good.

But just how YouTube was, at one point, mostly comprised of dogs on skateboards (Editors Note: I still think this video is awesome) and now hosts several thousand regularly scheduled online video programs with some form of structure, so too is Break attempting to become a home for content that isn’t your average viral fodder featuring conventionally hot chicks or guys getting hurt.

Break acquired HBO Labs in 2009, and has since integrated Home Box Office’s experiment of a new media studio into its own Creative Lab. In the past two years, Creative Lab has been busy. The team of content creators worked with a handful of brands to create over 200 pieces of video in 2010. In 2011, Break Media’s Creative Lab is looking to up that number to 1,000.

To achieve those goals, Break will produce a number of original web series for various wholly-owned sites within its network. The just-announced Spring programming slate includes:

• Awesome America on Break: The Break editors travel the country in search of the weird, the wonderful, and the awesome.
• Thinking Out Loud on Screen Junkies: A new take on the traditional press junket, in which our comedian correspondents voice their inner monologue as they interview big-name celebrities.
• MMAshed Potato on Cage Potato: Weekly re-caps of the most exciting and controversial moments in MMA sports.
• FAQ U on Game Front: A gamer’s one-stop destination for the best tips, tricks, cheats and walk-throughs for the week’s most popular games.
• For the Win on Made Man: A weekly infotainment series teaching men how to win at life—whether that’s how to be a master of the grill or successfully negotiate a raise.

Break will leverage its video ad network “that reaches more than 125 million users monthly” to entice advertisers and foot the bill for its 1,000+ pieces of original programming. But will Break be able to produce that many videos at a level of quality which will make advertisers feel comfortable writing checks?

Any company that aims to make 3.8 videos every weekday (including holidays) for a whole year certainly has its work cut out for it. Though if the premiere episode of For the Win is an example of what’s to come, Break will have no problem meeting its production quality thresholds.

The debut is fast, sleek, and looks pretty. Of course, it is about guys getting hurt, but on a journey to 1,000 plus videos, it probably makes sense to start off with the type of content you know best.