Amazon asks for users to help create TV series

Amazon has established its place as a power player in the digital books arena, and is now looking to get into television.


The content seller announced last week it is looking for submissions of scripts for comedy and children's TV series, CBS News reported. "Series can be live action, animated, stop motion or mixed media. Comedies must be 22 minutes long, while children’s series can be 11 or 22 minutes", the Amazon site stated.

Anyone is invited to upload series proposals to the website, and can do so in one of two ways: privately for review by Amazon Studios, or publicly to get community feedback. Then, within 45 days of evaluation, Amazon will either extend an option for US$10,000 or invite the creator to put the project on the Amazon site. If a show gets produced, the series creator will receive $55,000 plus other royalties and bonuses.

Amazon "wants to discover great talent and produce programming that audiences will love," said Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios, the division overseeing the programming effort. "There's an important difference between a focus group of 10 people and having 100,000 people watch your pilot and give feedback."

This new TV series project is led by Joe Lewis, previously of 20th Century Fox and Comedy Central, and Tara Sorensen, from National Geographic Kids, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Amazon Studios, which was launched in late 2010, has a similar venture with film production. Since then, more than 700 movie pilots were presented and 7,000 scripts, and currently 15 movies are under development.

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