The lessons of "Quarterlife"

NBC has set a television premiere date for its acquired Web show Quarterlife. It will debut on February 16.

I'd expect to see a whole lot more of these types of moves (Web-to-TV and TV-to-Web) with primetime television programming, although more of the former, at least inititally. Having a creative team build Web content from the ground up and build a loyal audience before moving to TV is certainly something we can expect to see the longer the writer's strike drags. I would also think that the networks will consider taking some struggling programs and consider moving them to the Web. In this way, a loyal audience can still view the program (and associated ad content). Of course, having this sort of transfer only complicates the contracts between the studios and their creative teams, because there would be different compensation expectations set depending on how the content is being released.