Web series

A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single instance of a web series program can be called an episode or a " webisode", however the term is not always used. In general, web series can be watched on a range of platforms and devices, including desktop, laptop, tablets and smartphones. They are different from streaming television, which can be watched on various streaming platforms.

As of 2016, there were a number of awards that have been established to celebrate excellence in web series, like the Streamys, Webbys, IAWTV, and Indie Series Awards, although the Streamys and IAWTV also cover programs on streaming platforms. There are also several web series festivals, most notably in Los Angeles and Vancouver. Most major award ceremonies have also created web series and digital media award categories, including the Emmy Awards and the Canadian Screen Awards.

History

1990s

In April 1995, "Global Village Idiots", an episode of the Bloomington, Indiana-based public access program '' Rox'', was uploaded to the Internet, making ''Rox'' the first series distributed via the web. The same year, Scott Zakarin created ''The Spot'', an episodic online story which integrated photos, videos, and blogs into the storyline. Likened to ''Melrose Place-on-the-Web'', ''The Spot'' featured a rotating cast of characters playing trendy twenty-somethings who rented rooms in a fabled Santa Monica, California beach house called "The Spot". ''The Spot'' earned the title of Infoseek's "Cool Site of the Year," an award which later became the Webby.

In January 1999, Showtime licensed the animated sci-fi web series '' WhirlGirl'', making it the first independently produced web series licensed by a national television network. In February 1999, the series premiered simultaneously on Showtime and online. The character occasionally appeared on Showtime, for example hosting a "Lethal Ladies" programming block, but spent most of her time online, appearing in 100 webisodes.

2000s

As broadband bandwidth began to increase in speed and availability, delivering high-quality video over the Internet became a reality. In the early 2000s, the Japanese anime industry began broadcasting original net animation (ONA), a type of original video animation (OVA) series, on the Internet. Early examples of ONA series include '' Infinite Ryvius: Illusion'' (2000), ''Ajimu'' (2001), and '' Mahou Yuugi'' (2001). In 2003, The Spot executive producer and head writer Stewart St. John revived the brand for online audiences with a new cast, and created a separate mobile series to air on Sprint PCS Vision-enabled phones. St. John and partner Todd Fisher produced over 2,500 daily videos of the first American mobile phone soap, driving story lines across platforms to the web counterpart, The Spot (2.0).

The same year, Microsoft launched MSN Video, which featured the original web series ''Weird TV 2000'', a spin-off of the syndicated television series ''Weird TV''. The web series featured dozens of shorts, comedy sketches, and mini-documentaries produced exclusively for MSN video. The video-sharing site YouTube was launched in early 2005, allowing users to share television programs.Waterman, D., Sherman, R., & Ji, S. W. (2013). The economics of online television: Industry development, aggregation, and “TV Everywhere”. Telecommunications Policy, 37(9), 725–736. YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim said the inspiration for YouTube first came from Janet Jackson's role in the 2004 Super Bowl incident, when her breast was exposed during her performance, and later from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Karim could not easily find video clips of either event online, which led to the idea of a video sharing site.

From 2003 to 2006, several independent web series began to achieve popularity, most notably Rooster Teeth's series '' Red vs. Blue''. The series was distributed independently using online portals YouTube and Revver, as well as the Rooster Teeth website, and acquired over 100 million views during its run. '' Sam Has 7 Friends'', which ran in the summer and fall of 2006, was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award, and was temporarily removed from the Internet when it was acquired by Michael Eisner. In 2004–2005, Spanish producer Pedro Alonso Pablos recorded a series of video interviews featuring actors and directors like Guillermo del Toro, Santiago Segura, Álex de la Iglesia, and Keanu Reeves, which were distributed through his own website. '' lonelygirl15'', ''California Heaven'', "The Burg", and '' SamHas7Friends'' also gained popularity during this time, acquiring audiences in the millions. ''Lonelygirl15'' was so successful that it secured a sponsorship deal with Neutrogena

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