Webisodes Come into Their Own

Web episode – web series  –  web television? Are we witnessing the emergence of a new medium?

A webisode is simply a web episode – collectively it is part of a web series, a form of new medium called web television that characteristically features a dramatic, serial storyline, where the primary method of viewership is streaming online over the Internet. While there is no set standard for length, most webisodes are relatively short, ranging from 4–15 minutes in length.

What lets you know webisodes have come into their own is the unlikely marriage of corporate sponsors creating web channels such as L Studio. L Studio (Lexus Studio) is copyrighted by LEXUS, a division of Toyota motor sales, U.S.A. inc. Emmy Award-winning actress Lisa Kudrow stars as a therapist with limited patience for other peoples’ problems in one of L Studio’s original improvised web series, “Web Therapy.”

What lets you know web series have come into their own is their cross-over with mainstream TV. SHOWTIME has picked up the television rights to Web Therapy and will air a minimum of 10 half-hour episodes that will include additional new material to be shot around the original webisodes.