Amazon Gets Into the Sitcom Business
Amazon.com has been stocking up its web video offering with lots of old TV shows, but now it's going to start making some of its own.
The company is pulling back the curtain on its plans to produce kids' shows and sitcoms via its "Amazon Studios" unit, which has already been dipping a toe into the movie business.
Word of the new push leaked out earlier this year, via hiring notices.
Amazon Studios head Roy Price won't discuss his budget, the number of shows he intends to make or a timeline for getting them on the web. But he is willing to sketch out a couple notions.
Like the movie effort, Amazon is soliciting scripts for new productions via the web and will pay out modest fees -- $10,000 for an option, $55,000 if a show gets produced, plus possible royalties -- for shows it likes.
The big difference between Price's TV effort and his movie effort is that Amazon intends to actually make the shows and distribute them via its own site. For the movie effort, Amazon is feeding scripts it likes to Warner Bros., which will decide what to do with them.
