Time Warner going for laughs

In its never-ending quest to capture eyeballs, Time Warner is going for laughs. DCComics, home of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, has teamed up with Warner Books to cross promote a pre-publication version of Brad Meltzer's The Book of Fate, a graphic novel thriller chocked full of American historical tidbits.

Also on a comedic note, Turner Broadcasting System announced it will distribute two "very funny broadband destinations: veryfunnyads.com and Laugh Lab." Veryfunnyads.com will be the world's largest online collection of humorous commercials. Viewers will be able to email links to their favorite commercials. Veryfunnyads.com will offer periodic updates to its collection. This just could replace fantasy football leagues as many people's favorite work-time activity. Veryfunnyads.com launched today via a one-hour World's Funniest Commercials show on TBS. Laugh Lab will feature original materials from well known stand-ups, as well as encore performances of comedy materials already distributed by TBS. Viewers will be able to customize their choice of comedy videos.

Using the capabilities provided by its purchase of Truveo, Time Warner subsidiary AOL aims to be the premier web video site. AOL Video will provide online video search capabilities and will also carry thousands of hours of programming by partnering and sharing revenue with Arts and Entertainment network, the History Channel, Nickelodeon and MTV channels. The initial 30,000 videos also include on-demand news segments from ABD, CNN and Reuters. AOL plans to increase its sale of video ads to over $1 billion in the next few years as additional programming, both original and encore performances, is put on the Web. TV ad marketing is already a $60 billion per year industry.