'Live the adventure'

NBC Universal is launching Gemini Division, a sci-fi web series, this August 18. Advertising Age claims it is "perhaps the most significant original programming ever developed by a broadcast network specifically for the web."

Starring actress Rosario Dawson, Gemini Division boasts a VIP list of advertisers, including Microsoft, Intel and UPS. It will run on SciFi.com, NBC.com, GeminiDivision.com and a select host of on-demand TV platforms (Amazon Unbox, Time Warner, Comcast, for example).

The series will be 50 webisodes long, each about four to five minutes. Four new shows will run per week, and on Fridays, the week's fare will appear as a single long-form episode.

"We wanted to be sensitive to the current viewer behavior and not put a traditional 22 minutes out there. In a sense, we're letting the story dictate where the breaks are," said NBCU VP Cameron Death.

If viewers respond favorably to a given story line or character, the network is also prepared to shoot ancillary footage and create social media spin-offs.