AOL Places Huge Bet On Web Video Programming & Curation

America Online is getting deeper into the online video act with the AOL On Network, a destination that will bring 320,000 videos and will feature 14 content channels. Along with the announcement comes the news that AOL will also be behind 7 new original series, several of them produced by Michael Eisner's Vuguru production house. AOL's announcement comes during the ongoing upfronts to advertisers in New York.

AOL Original Programming And Content Curation

AOL already had Cambio, which will be grouped in with the different networks. They'll also have stuff like AOL Entertainment, AOL Tech, and so on, divided into all the different genres. Their video properties ranked in the top 5 on ComScore last March, with over 57 million unique visitors.

The Vuguru series will be "Little Women In Big Cars," a soccer-mom reality show, and "Fetching," a doggy day care comedy/drama from Sex and the City writer/producer Amy Harris. Other series include "Digital Justice," a reality show about forensic investigators solving cyber crimes, "Next Door Hero," a reality series about everyday people with amazing stories, "Nina Garcia," a video advice column from the editor of Marie Claire, "Tiger Beat Entertainment," entertainment/pop culture news from the teen magazine, and "UR +1," a fantasy game based on celebrities.

Here's a quote from AOL's Ran Harnevo from the Variety article by Jill Goldsmith:

Since online video took off "we got flooded," said AOL's content chief Ran Harnevo, by "cats on surfboards" and "your uncle's trip to Jamaica…Let's take the best thing TV gave us - programming - and apply it."

Here is a video announcement from AOL concerning the new video hub:

A preview for the new series Fetching:

And a preview for Little Women In Big Cars:

So AOL is definitely making a nice push to organize their video content and give advertisers something to work with over the next year.