Viewing TV-Style Programs in the DEN

Imagine a television network that features shows about punk rock, aggressive skateboarding and the neighborhoods of East Los Angeles as well an Asian-style Hardy Boys series.

Such a lineup may be a hard sell for cable TV, let alone a broadcast network. But a Santa Monica company is planning to take on television by offering those shows--plus 26 more--on the Internet starting in May.

By focusing on a large number of niche audiences, Digital Entertainment Network Inc. hopes to attract enough viewers to lure advertisers away from television. DEN has already signed ad deals with Ford Motor Co. and four other Fortune 100 firms worth a total of $12.5 million.

Still, creating profitable entertainment for the Web is a Holy Grail that has so far eluded scores of start-ups. DEN relies on many of the same ingredients, including a two-inch-by-two-inch square of streaming video that is a poor substitute for a TV screen.

“The Web as entertainment is still a very difficult model, even three, four or five years into the commercial Internet,” said Patrick Keane, an online analyst with Jupiter Communications in New York. “People continue to view PCs as a task-oriented appliance, and it’s hard to shake that stigma.”

DEN co-founders Marc Collins-Rector and Chad Shackley believe otherwise. The partners, who previously founded Internet service provider Concentric Network Corp., are aiming the new cyber-network at teenagers and twentysomethings who are equally at ease with a remote control and computer mouse.

Indeed, many TV programmers agree that the Internet is cutting into young people’s television viewing time and poses a challenge that should not be ignored. In the past, kids flipped on the tube when they came home from school, tuning in on syndicated cartoons and action-adventure shows. Now teens spend those same hours surfing the Web, weaving in and out of chat rooms and building their own kinds of multimedia entertainment.

“If we target the people that TV is ignoring today, our audience will be huge,” said DEN President David Neuman, who previously served as president of Walt Disney Television and Touchstone Television.

Not that the cyber-network would need a huge audience to turn a profit. Neuman said DEN requires only 50,000 viewers to make a show profitable.

Each episode will consist of six minutes of television-style streaming video and 15 minutes of interactive content. New episodes, which cost $10,000 apiece to produce but can be viewed for free, will be released twice a week at https://www.den.net.

Digital Entertainment Network will launch this spring with 30 pilot programs. The initial programs were selected after demographic research identified the largest underserved communities on the Internet, Collins-Rector said.

By summer’s end, all but the 10 most popular shows will be cut from the lineup to make way for a new set of pilot programs.

Streaming technology, coupled with the promise of high-speed broad-band networks, set DEN’s efforts apart from such mid-’90s disasters as American Cybercast Inc. That Web-based broadcaster, known for its soap operas that relied on still photos and diary entries, seemed to have all the right elements: a strong link between fans and stars, with regular updates to foster a loyal following.

But none of its Web soaps, such as “The Spot” and “The Pyramid,” became a commercial success, and American Cybercast went bankrupt in 1997.

Analysts are skeptical of DEN’s approach, in large part because it focuses less on interactivity than did its predecessors.

“On the Internet, you’re hunched over your keyboard with 10 fingers, and you’re ready to do something,” said Mark Hardie, senior analyst for entertainment and technology strategies at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. “You’re trying to be engaged.”

Such talk doesn’t faze DEN executives, who say consumers have come to expect TV-style entertainment--even on the Internet--and will click away from anything less. In fact, Collins-Rector attributes the demise of “The Spot” to its lack of moving pictures.

Analysts also doubt that DEN’s niche strategy will lure many advertisers, who prefer portal sites such as Yahoo because they promise a massive and broader audience.

“It’s an unproven business model,” Hardie said of DEN’s Internet-entertainment plan.

That doesn’t mean others aren’t trying it. New York-based Pseudo Programs Inc. is also producing original shows for the Web, as are established sites such as Broadcast.com and CNN Interactive.

Digital Entertainment Network has spent $15 million since its founding in 1996 and has grown from its two employees to 60. Collins-Rector said he and Shackley have funded a majority of the company’s operations so far, and they have also raised $8 million in venture capital.

But DEN President Neuman said the company’s success will depend on more than money.

“If we have compelling content for the needs and desires and interests of our audiences,” he said, “we will have a wonderful business.”

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Karen Kaplan can be reached via e-mail at karen.kaplan@latimes.com. P.J. Huffstutter can be reached via e-mail at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com.