KateModern, Bebo’s London-based interactive video drama produced by LG15 and starring Ralph Little amongst others, is to get carried on Virgin Atlantic’s v:port in-flight entertainment system (factsheet). The airline will show an introduction followed by the series’ 31 episodes of the Lonelygirl15 spin-off, Digital Spy reports. Virgin’s branding head Lysette Gauna said the airline “expects to screen more entertainment sourced from the internet over the next year”.
Funded by product-placement ads, KateModern drew over 25 million views on Bebo since premiering during the summer. Videos appear on LG15.com and YouTube after Bebo. The Virgin Atlantic deal is the first to take the webcam confessional drama format popularised by progenitor Lonelygirl15 in to a linear arena and, if successful, could hold the key to that, and future, LG15 series appearing on TV proper. At Mipcom, Cannes, in October, LG15 co-founder Miles Beckett spoke of hopes to deliver such franchises on TV. But porting a series for which viewer interaction was supposedly the key component may require more than just repackaging. By delivering first to a touch-screen medium up in a flying tin can, they may be able to iron out some of these problems before approaching television networks.