NATPE: Verizon becomes its own TV network affiliate

LAS VEGAS--Verizon Wireless today at NATPE Mobile revealed more details about its launch of exclusive TV content over its new VCast EV-DO consumer portal, announcing Twentieth Television would be launching an entire season's worth of two serial dramas, each episode encapsulated in 1-minute video stream.

Called "Love and Hate" and "Sunset Hotel" the two programs will be directed, shot and produced by Twentieth TV, a division of News Corporation, specifically for a viewing over a small handset screen and distributed exclusively to Verizon and Verizon's UK partner Vodafone. News Corp. is also developing another series of the so-called "mobisodes" based on its hit TV show "24", though it has not said if the VCast program will be comprised of entirely new content or of repurposed content from the broadcast TV series.

Twentieth TV executive vice president Marisa Fermin said "Love and Hate" would be a "manipulated reality" series, which will resemble the reality shows Fox pioneered throughout this decade, but will define parameters in which the actors or contestants will perform in order to meet the constraints of the 1-minute format. "Sunset Hotel" will be a scripted drama, she said. Both will run 26 episodes in a season, but neither Twentieth TV nor Verizon said how often new episodes will be released or if the programming will be available to all VCast subscribers or only those shelling out for premium services.

News and sports entertainment shows have repurposed their content for mobile--this is the first time a major television studio has committed resources to develop programming entirely for mobile devices. "It was an idea of ours to come up with an entirely different kind of content, just for the mobile phone," Fermin said.

The mobisode series are expected to debut with the launch of Verizon's Vcast program Feb.1