Daily DigVid Review: Seth MacFarlane Goes Global, Worldwide, Baby

He’s conquered broadcast, cable and syndication so it makes sense that Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has inked a deal with Google to distribute a series of 50 two-minute animated shorts across Google’s AdSense network, according to The New York Times’ Brooks Barnes. (Accompanying photo from there as well, so thanks guys.)

The beauty of the deal is that the distribution network already is in place, and it automatically targets exactly the demographic that totally gets MacFarlane’s naughty, naughty sense of humor: young men and my Family Guy-fanatic sister. It’s that kind of targeting that many advertisers crave — while the broad reach of TV will always be valuable, there are plenty of advertisers who don’t want to reach anyone but 18-34-year-old men. Internet content such as this gets them there.

Even the Webisodes’ advertisements will be animated, with MacFarlane working with advertisers to create the spots. The deal stands to make 34-year-old MacFarlane, who recently signed a $100 million-plus deal with Twentieth Century Fox, even richer. Just to be spiteful, I would like to point out that MacFarlane is heading out of his own key demo. No amount of money can keep us from getting older … but I imagine big wads of cash and a bar stocked with top shelf booze really helps ease the pain. But I digress … 

Writes Barnes: “[T]he partnership with Mr. MacFarlane represents a bold step into the distribution business, one that, if successful, will surely send shock waves through the entertainment business. Cavalcade is not only from a high-profile Hollywood talent, but also carries a multimillion-dollar production price tag, by far the largest amount spent on original Internet content to date.”

I think it also could make us, as a society, even more ADD than we already are. With five-minute interstitials, such as FX’s Rescue Me, and two-minute Webisodes becoming so common, who’s going to make it all the way through a one-hour drama? I’m already way out of the demo, and pretty soon two minutes is all I’m going to be able to remember anyway.

CBS’ CEO Leslie Moonves tells PaidContent.com that CNET was a better buy for CBS than Weather Channel was, that CBS plans to integrate CBSNews.com into CNET and some other interesting tidbits.

Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios is making all of its content available for online distribution. That includes 4,000 hours of wholly-owned original programming from such shows as Entertainers with Byron Allen, Beautiful Homes & Great Estates, Designers Fashions and Runways, Urban Style, The American Athlete and so on. Interested parties can register to become a distribution partner here.

TV networks don’t have to worry yet: While online video is growing rapidly, most adults still prefer to watch TV on their TV, according to a new study by Nielsen for CTAM. One-third of adult broadband users said they had watched at least one TV program on the Internet. Of those who sought video content online, 87% of them watched via a TV network Web site, and 82% specifically searched for that program in order to watch it. Most broadband users remain mostly interested in content such as movie trailers, user-generated videos, music videos, news segments, short-form comedy and sports clips, according to the study.