PRNewswire — Viacom (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTVN Entertainment Group’s Atom.com, a digital comedy network and Comedy Central’s exclusive partner and anchor brand for original digital comedy content, announced today that it has signed writer-director Sandeep Parikh to an exclusive first look production commitment. The deal follows the success of Parikh’s The Legend of Neil series (legendofneil.atom.com), which has generated 700,000 plays since debuting on Atom.com in August and reached over 400,000 more viewers when it made its television debut on Atom TV on Comedy Central on September 15.
The production deal gives Atom the first option on new digital content ideas from Parikh and it has committed in advance to developing two of them to pilot stage. In addition, Atom and Parikh are in discussions on future seasons of The Legend of Neil, building on the adventures of a guy who gets sucked into The Legend of Zelda after a night of heavy drinking and game playing and must fight his way out or risk perishing in the magical world. The series was a hit among gamers, who also know Parikh from his work as an actor in Felicia Day’s The Guild, a popular web series set in the world of massively multiplayer online games.
“Working with Megan and the Atom.com team has been an absolute blast,” said Parikh. “I couldn’t be more excited about the success of The Legend of Neil and the new deal we’ve struck.”
“Sandeep’s funny and inventive first season of The Legend of Neil has resonated with the Atom audience online, on Atom TV and on all of our platforms,” said Atom’s VP of Development and Acquisitions, Megan O’Neill. “He really understands the Web and we are thrilled to be creating more content with him.”
The Atom.com digital comedy network extends far beyond the Web site, reaching almost every screen that plays video. Elsewhere on the Internet, Atom channels are featured on iTunes (which is currently selling the complete first season of The Legend of Neil), AOL, AT&T, Bebo, Dailymotion, Veoh, xBox Live, and Parikh’s own Effinfunny.com site. On television, the weekly Atom TV series (TV-MA) features original Atom comedy videos and top user videos on Comedy Central every Monday night at 2:00 a.m. On mobile phones, Atom has prominent channels on Verizon Wireless’ V CAST as well as AT&T’s CV and AllTel.
Atom.com, a division of Viacom Inc.’s (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTV Networks, is a digital comedy network for young men that reaches millions of consumers each month on the Atom.com Web site and millions more through multiplatform distribution on television, mobile phones, and the Internet. Drawing on a strategic partnership with Comedy Central and its own 10-year history of online video innovation and leadership (formerly as AtomFilms), Atom.com delivers Web comedy like nobody else.
SOURCE MTVN Entertainment Group