Gawker
Electric Farm Entertainment, the production company behind NBC's new Web-only show Gemini Division, has already earned themselves a profit on the production. How? By lacing the show with consumer-electronics product placement from Intel, Cisco, and Microsoft, and striking distribution deals with NBC and Sony. NBC, however, might have a harder time making the project pay — the ads currently running on the site look like cheap, run-of network trash. Whose idea was it to advertise a fiber supplement alongside a sci-fi romp with Rosario Dawson that's clearly targeted to young, male viewers?
That would be the new Digital Studio headed by Vivi Zigler, presumably. Hopefully the site will actually feature some video on the front page by the time the series launches on August 18. Now, it takes at least two clicks and a wait through a 15-second ad for said digestive supplement or headache pills just to get to a preview featuring Dawson vlogging. At least the headache pills are appropriate. It's nearly as difficult and frustrating as finding something to watch on NBC's Olympics site.
