No time for TV soaps? Log on for 3-min sitcoms

Marathon meetings and long work hours leave Preeti Sachdev, a public relation professional, with little time to sit in front of her new LCD television. The 25-year-old surfs the Net for her daily dose of entertainment. “My entertainment mainly comes from YouTube videos,” she said.

Now, busy professionals like Sachdev have another option — the micro sitcom. Launched on Rediffishare a month ago, Ram and Ria is ostensibly the first English micro sitcom. Each episode is a three-minute video that depicts a day in the lives of the newly-wed working couple Ram and Ria.

“It is aimed at the busy generation who wants entertainment in small doses between work,” said Siddhartha Kumar, one of the directors of Pixel Craft, a Chennai-based production house that has created the sitcom.

In just a month, the sitcom has garnered over 50,000 views. “The response is phenomenal considering that it was launched without promotions,” revealed Kumar.

Ram and Ria is not a one-off thing — Pixel Craft is already planning an animation series for the Web.

Encouraged by the popularity of the sitcom, Rediffshare has also tied up with several TV channels that want to make their content available online.

Another portal, Campus 18, is hosting a three-minute video-making contest; the winner will get the chance to make India’s first online interactive serial. “We can only say that the serial will have elements of reality television,” said Puneet Johar, founder and managing director of Tangerine Digital Entertainment, which owns the portal.

But will consumers pay to view online content? “The country is not yet prepared to pay for content,” said Johar.