The first of the Battlestar Galactica webisodes premiered on Tuesdasy at Scifi.com Pulse. The webisodes will bridge the time between the second season finale and the season three premier (due Oct. 6). This first one focuses on some of the characters organizing a resistance on New Caprica. Scifi.com will release the shorts on Tuesdays and Thursdays at midnight.
The NY Times discusses: Sci Fi Creates ‘Webisodes’ to Lure Viewers to TV: “Writing the story told in the Web segments posed a challenge because the episodes had to be short, lead up to the season premiere, be accessible to new viewers and look good on tiny screens. At the same time the shows had to be nonessential to the new season, so television viewers could follow the on-air series without having watched the Web content.”
The Writers Guild is unhappy that its members are being asked to deliver more material to the networks for online offerings without a corresponding increase in writers’ salaries.
The Hollywood Reporter offers some more detail on the dispute between the WGA and networks over webisodes: Webisodes a bone of contention: “NBC Uni said the WGA has asked showrunners on “The Office,” “Heroes,” “Crossing Jordan” and “Battlestar Galactica” to refuse to provide materials for use in show webisodes or for other Web-based content. NBC Uni is asking the NLRB to force showrunners to provide the requested materials and argues that such cooperation is mandatory under existing guild contracts.”