More TV Veterans Are Making Jump to the Internet

The question nagged Harvey Levin all summer: Is the Internet a place where TV careers go to die -- or be reborn?

After Telepictures Productions pulled the plug on Levin’s syndicated newsmagazine “Celebrity Justice,” he was approached about starting an entertainment news website with America Online.

“My initial reaction was, I couldn’t be less interested,” Levin recalled. “I thought, I’m going to do more television. Why would I do Internet?”

But he continued to ponder the benefits of online distribution: younger viewers, faster turnaround, lower overhead, not to mention exposure to the more than 110 million people who visit AOL websites each month.

So after finding nothing more exciting in television, Levin agreed to join TMZ.com, a joint venture between Telepictures and America Online that the companies plan to unveil today and launch in October.

Levin joins an increasing number of broadcasting veterans jumping to Internet concerns for a chance to set the course for a new generation of programming. In another recent example, Yahoo Inc. on Monday said it had hired TV journalist Kevin Sites to file video, audio and written dispatches from nearly three dozen war zones.

Much as radio shock jock Howard Stern plans to move his program to Sirius Satellite Radio at the end of this year, some television producers, deal makers and even on-air personalities are starting to see the Internet emerge as an inviting place to find audiences and advertisers.

“What I love about this so much is it hasn’t shown its potential,” Levin said. “It’s more exciting to me to be at a place where I can at least attempt to break some ground than to basically follow a set path.”

The Web’s role as a broadcast medium where TV veterans can put their skills to use is still in its early days of development. Hollywood talent agencies have deal makers assigned specifically to find business opportunities in the video game industry, where the annual revenue rivals box-office receipts. But there are few, if any, focused on developing programming for the Internet, where most revenue is generated by simple text or banner ads.

For writers, producers and their agents thinking about pitching an idea to Yahoo or AOL, “the kind of money they’re going to get pales in comparison to what they can get writing a feature film or getting on staff of a TV show for a year,” said Chris Silbermann, a partner with literary agency Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann. “There’s just not enough financial incentive.”

Yet as broadband connections spawn more streaming video and TV-like commercials on the Web, the business models that have made Tinseltown hum for the last century are finally starting to take shape for original Internet programming, according to Internet and entertainment executives.

“There hasn’t yet been that big hit Internet show,” said Daniel Laikind, a founder of Stick Figure Productions, which created reality TV shows for the HBO and UPN networks before starting a reality show on the recording industry for AOL. “Five years from now we’re all going to sit back and laugh that any of us wondered if Internet programming was going to be viable.”

One longtime Hollywood publicist said celebrities had to promote themselves on the Internet these days, and having AOL’s muscle behind it could only help TMZ.com. “If I do something on AOL, I can hit 20 million people,” said Howard Bragman, who represents Stevie Wonder and Ricki Lake. “I can’t do that on TV anymore.”

AOL and rival Yahoo are driving the change, scouring the news and entertainment industries for ideas and talent to bring original video programming to their networks. AOL and parent company Time Warner Inc. are finally starting to heal the rifts from their disastrous 2001 merger and work together on next-generation programming.

For his part, Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel is stocking the company with entertainment insiders: Lloyd Braun joined the Internet giant after being fired as chairman of the ABC television network and has since recruited seasoned deal makers from his old industry to figure out how to take advantage of the unique mix of broadcasting, personalization and interactivity that the Internet offers.

“The landscape is wide open,” said Ira Kurgan, chief business officer of the Santa Monica-based Yahoo Media Group and a former Fox Broadcasting Co. executive.

Executives from AOL and Telepictures came up with the idea for TMZ.com during a brainstorming session to devise ways for the fellow Time Warner properties to work together.

Because most of the websites for Telepictures shows are designed simply to promote more TV viewing, the executives decided to create a new Web property. “We decided to start from the ground up in the new medium rather than try to put a square peg in a round hole,” Telepictures President Jim Paratore said.

Levin, who served as executive producer and consultant to “The People’s Court” for 19 years and was a KCBS-TV reporter for a decade, agreed to join the venture in early July and assembled a team of 25 working in the former “Celebrity Justice” offices in Glendale. They had trouble deciding on a name, but eventually chose TMZ.com for Thirty Mile Zone, an entertainment industry term referring to the area around Hollywood.

The staffers will gather news and features on celebrities from films, TV music and even video games, then distribute the programming over the Internet as soon as it’s ready, in a wider range of lengths than TV would allow. They will also provide access to 12 years of archived footage from “Extra,” Telepictures’ celebrity news TV program.

“It’s bigger than a show,” Levin said. “It’s more like a network.”

All parties involved say merely streaming TV programming over the Web won’t hold people’s interest, so they plan to make it highly interactive and link to other entertainment-oriented websites. They wouldn’t reveal many details out of fear of them being swiped before the October launch, but Paratore said one planned video feature was tentatively titled “Midnight Elevator,” in which a celebrity is interviewed in a moving elevator.

AOL, which gets the advertising revenue from TMZ.com, plans to funnel traffic to the new site in an effort to make good on its promise to Time Warner investors that its online ad sales would surge.

Levin hopes the website lasts long enough to make his stamp. When he broke into the TV business in the late ‘70s, he said, he would often sit spellbound as old-timers recounted tales of medium pioneers such as Jack Paar and Johnny Carson.

“I loved those stories, and I never thought I’d have a chance to live that kind of experiment because TV was already established,” Levin said. “Now I kind of feel that.”