Viacom and MTVN Entertainment will create one Web destination, Atom.com, by merging AtomFilms.com and AtomUploads.com properties.
The new site will combine original comedy programming with user-generated video.
Building on a model used by sites like Sony’s Crackle site, MTVN hopes to use the site as a way to find and harness nascent indie talent through development deals.
Atom.com will partner with Viacom-owned cable channel Comedy Central, which will provide it with original digital content. In turn, an original half-hour series, “Atom TV,” will air on Comedy Central’s digital outlet.
Planned Atom.com original series include “Border Patrol,” produced by Josh Greenbaum, Ben McMillan and Ivan Reitman, about “three slacker friends who spend their weekends in lawn chairs at the Mexican border”; “Steven & Stephen,” about “groin-conjoined” twins; “Stickman Exodus,” which follows the animated adventures of line drawings; and “Benny, Escaped Convict,” about a lab rat on the lam.
“We want Atom.com to provoke, break rules and uncover talent much as Comedy Central did at its inception on cable,” said Erik Flannigan, executive VP of digital media at MTVN Entertainment Group, in a statement Thursday. “If we get this right, Atom.com will be our punk-rock label and help to bring fresh, provocative comedy to every screen our audience is watching.”