Former TV producer Stan Rogow says NBC was surprised when he turned down the network's offer to develop a primetime sci-fi series for "AfterWorld" last winter. But his instinct to instead launch the end-of-the-world epic online seems to be bearing fruit.
Since two-minute installments of "AfterWorld" began popping up as on YouTube last week, the 130-webisode show, chronicling the adventures of a computer salesman who wakes up in an eerily deserted Manhattan hellscape, has drawn half a million views.
"We don't see ourselves as narrow-casting some niche audience show," Rogow says. "Obviously there's aspects that gamers will like, sci - fi audiences will like, conspiracy buffs will like but guess what? That's "Lost," and "Lost" casts a pretty big net."
Rogow, who runs Electric Farm with AfterWorld creator Brent Friedman ("Command & Conquer 3") and former CBS Entertainment president Jeff Sagansky, attracted financial backing from Sony International in exchange foreign internet, mobile and broadcast rights. Stateside, Budweiser's BudTV signed on for a limited window deal to debut the shows, although Rogow says he's "platform - agnostic" and eager to pursue other domestic partners for non-exclusive deals.
Rogow decided to re-invent himself as a web entrepreneur after noticing that his 13-year old son no longer watches TV. "He and his pals hover around the computer. That's where they live. I realized, if this is the future then lets find a way to do something more than some kid blowing milk out of his nose."
Bypassing a broadcast platform for its intial roll-out, Electric Farm designed AfterWorld from inception as a multi-platform intellectual property. "We have built a very deep universe, which is exploitable going forward in several ways. One level of storytelling is the episodes, which we roll out one a day, five days a week. Another level will take place on our website afterworldtv.tv. Third, we're developing mobile gaming and look forward to developing traditional gaming as a whole other level of immersion for the audience. And eventually it could migrate in a repackaged form onto traditional television."
"Look," Rogow says: "Our strategy was quite simple. There are always going to be new methods of distribution, but at the end of the day you have to have the "It" - - the story. Brent and I know how to do that, so we decided to just make these shows that attract eyeballs, and that will be the proof of concept."
