By , Inter@ctive Week
November 19, 1999 7:12 AM PT




This week's Webcast tied to ABC's "The Drew Carey Show" drew 1.9 million 
viewers,
making it one of the largest Webcast events in Web history. 

But anointing the Nov. 17 Webcast as the single largest multimedia event 
online depends
mostly on how you do the counting. 

The Web video -- produced by "Drew Carey" creator Bruce Helford and Warner 
Bros.
Television and intended to be watched simultaneously with the on-air 
broadcast of
Wednesday's "Drew Carey Show" episode -- was able to stagger its viewership 
over three
separate airings of the television show in the Eastern, Mountain and Western 
time zones of
the United States. 

Consequently, it's difficult to make comparisons with previous Webcast 
events. Online
broadcasts, such as February's online lingerie fashion show by Victoria's 
Secret and
Broadcast.com that drew an estimated 1.4 million visitors, typically have 
been one-shot live
events drawing all of their traffic during a single showing of the Webcast. 

Figures detailing peak online viewership levels are not yet available. Warner 
Bros. cobbled
together a network of online multimedia distribution companies to handle the 
Nov. 17
Webcast's traffic, making it difficult to compile detailed viewership data 
quickly, said Jim
Banister, executive vice president of Warner Bros. Online. 

Warner Bros. contracted with a string of companies -- including Akamai 
Technologies,
Enron, e-Media, Globex, iBeam Broadcasting, InterVU and Sandpiper Networks -- 
to carry
the Webcast feed. Because of the scattered nature of the distribution system, 
it is hard to
tell how many users were blocked from accessing the video feed or to 
determine how long
viewers stayed tuned in to the Webcast, Banister said. 

Still, Warner Bros. officials are heartened by the early results and are 
planning additional
online streaming events, including an online promotion for rock band 
Metallica slated for
later this month. 

"We are going to see exponential growth in the ability to do Web streaming 
events,"
Banister said. "It's only going to get better and better and more refined." 


11/19/1999 Daily Variety Page 6 Copyright 1999 Variety, Inc. 




The first streaming Webisode of ABC laffer "The Drew Carey Show" from Warner 
Bros. Online attracted nearly 2 million visits, capturing more viewers online 
Wednesday night than most cable programming.


Warner Bros. Online also said Thursday it has inked a pact with actor Chris 
O'Donnell to begin producing original content for its upcoming entertainment 
hub Entertaindom, sometime in the next year.


While watching "Carey's" regularly scheduled TV show on ABC, Netizens also 
used Microsoft's Windows Media Player to watch what happens inside Carey's 
house when he's at work, including Ed McMahon failing to find Carey to hand 
him a $1 million check, and dogs and ghosts throwing a bash inside the house.


Warner Bros. is using the Webcast to tease its new online streaming video 
venture Entertaindom, which officially bows Nov. 29. Its event slate includes 
a weeklong Netcast of the new Metallica album.


The "Drew Cam" sweeps event was exec-produced by Bruce Helford and produced 
by Warner Bros. Online in association with Warner Bros. Television and 
ABC.com.


Tech partners for the event included Akamai Technologies, Don Mischer 
Technologies, E-Media, Enron Communications, Globix, Ibeam, InterVu, 
SandPiper-Digital Island and Sonic Foundry Media Services.


"This is a television-Internet first," Warner Bros. Online exec VP Jim 
Banister said. "Not only was the program entertaining and evolutionary in its 
cross-media creative expression, it also gave birth to a new paradigm in how 
to reach large audiences via streaming media."


Ratings for "Drew Cam" may have topped the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and 
MTV's NetAid events, which so far rank as the most watched video broadcasts 
online.


Warner Bros. Online also said Thursday that O'Donnell has handed over 
management of his Web fan sites to Warner Bros. home page community AcmeCity, 
the latest example of an actor attempting to protect his image on the 'Net.


O'Donnell has 57,000 fansites on Yahoo! GeoCities, alone.


Warner Bros. will also help steer the official Web presence of O'Donnell's 
George Street Pictures, which produced "The Bachelor" and the upcoming CBS 
telepic "Miracle on the 17th Green."


O'Donnell said he will produce yet-to-be-determined programming for 
Entertaindom in the coming year.


"I want to begin building a core audience of Internet-based fans today 
because producing entertainment programming (online) will mean a lot more 
than making movies in the future," O'Donnell said.