[26] The same year, Scott Zakarin created The Spot, an episodic online story which integrated photos, videos, and blogs into the storyline.
[32] As broadband bandwidth began to increase in speed and availability, delivering high-quality video over the Internet became a reality.
[33] Early examples of ONA series include Infinite Ryvius: Illusion (2000),[34] Ajimu (2001),[35] and Mahou Yuugi (2001).
The series was distributed independently using online portals YouTube and Revver, as well as the Rooster Teeth website, acquiring over 100 million social media views during its run.
The drama Sam Has 7 Friends, which ran in the summer and fall of 2006, was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award, and was temporarily removed from the Internet when it was acquired by Michael Eisner.
[40] In 2004–2005, Spanish producer Pedro Alonso Pablos recorded a series of video interviews featuring actors and directors such as Guillermo del Toro, Santiago Segura, Álex de la Iglesia, and Keanu Reeves, which were distributed through his own website.
)[44] In 2004, Stewart St. John, executive producer and head writer of 1990s webisodics The Spot, revived the brand for online audiences as The Spot (2.0), with a new cast, and as a separate soap opera on Sprint PCS Vision-enabled cell phones, creating the first American mobile phone series.
[45][46] St. John and partner Todd Fisher produced over 2,500 daily videos of the mobile soap, driving story lines across platforms to its web counterpart.
[47] Big Fantastic created and produced Prom Queen, which was financed and distributed by Vuguru, and debuted on MySpace.
[55] Meanwhile, MTV announced a new original web series created by Craig Brewer, $5 Cover, that brought together the indie music world and new media expansion.
Joss Whedon created, produced and self-financed[56] musical comedy-drama Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog starring Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day.
[57] Big Fantastic wrote and produced Foreign Body, a mystery web series that served as a prequel to Robin Cook's novel of the same name.
Bebo also hosted a six-month-long reality travel show, The Gap Year, produced by Endemol UK,[61] which also made interactive sci-fi drama Kirill for MSN.
[65] The rise in popularity of mobile Internet video, along with technological improvements to storage, bandwidth, and bitrates, led to the erasure of accessibility and affordability barriers.
In 2009, the International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) was founded with the mission to support and recognize artistic and technological achievements in the digital entertainment industry.