WB network to return as a website

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The WB brand, born as a broadcast network in 1995 and closed in 2006, will return as an online video website, combining short original series with classic shows, the Warner Brothers Television Group announced.

TheWB.com, and a complementary site for children called KidsWB.com, are part of a “digital destination” strategy by Warner Brothers, a subsidiary of Time Warner, to tailor websites to specific audiences.

In trying to compete for consumers’ time, Warner and other media companies have sought new outlets for content, sometimes bypassing the traditional network structure and creating broadband Internet channels. “My 20-year-old daughter and her friends are watching One Tree Hill and Pushing Daisies, but not on television,” Bruce Rosenblum, the president of the Warner television group, said. “They’re watching on laptops and cellphones. Here’s the interesting part—to them, that is television.”

The website, to start in a test form next month, will focus on those consumers—16- to 34-year-olds, particularly women—with free ad-supported episodes of Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville and other series once on WB.

The WB broadcast network merged with UPN to form a new brand, the CW, in 2006. Warner and the CBS Corporation are partners for the network, which has suffered ratings declines in its second season.

Episodes of other Warner productions, most notably Friends and The OC, will also be streamed online.

Along with archived shows, Warner hopes to attract users with made-for-Internet video series, including ones headed by McG, who is best known for directing the Charlie’s Angels films and whose real name is Joseph McGinty Nichol, and

Josh Schwartz, the executive producer of The OC and

Gossip Girl. McG is working

with production teams on two series, Sorority Forever and Exposed, both set at college; Schwartz is developing a

music programme.

TheWB.com will face competition from other companies that are producing short-form series and streaming shows on the Internet.

“It’s very hard to form new destinations online,” an analyst at JupiterResearch, Bobby Tulsiani, said, noting that YouTube is still by far the dominant video website.

Tulsiani said a syndication model, where videos are made available on multiple sites, appears more promising for media companies. The online video site Hulu, a JV between NBC Universal and the News Corp, has adopted the model. Similarly, Warner has signed partnerships with Comcast and AOL to share its video.