Net-based firms use veteran actors to capitalize on the past

The two actors are seated on a brown leather couch filming a “Star Trek” spoof. He’s an unknown who’s supposed to be William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk. She’s Nichelle Nichols, playing herself, the former Lt.Uhura. High art it’s not, but the campy video clip is a featured offering at a Web site called GalaxyOnline.com. The upstart is part of a small but growing number of Internet-based entertainment companies hoping to one day produce fare that rivals what’s presented on television or in movie theaters. But until that future can be realized, many of the budding online sites are trying to capitalize on the past, producing modern-day sendups of prime-time classics and memorable movies, and making unlikely trailblazers out of veteran actors. Online entertainment will not likely become mainstream for at least another five years, when a significant portion of Americans are expected to have access to fast broadband Internet connections in their homes, according to Jim Penhune, an analyst with the research firm Yankee Group.Right now there are fewer than 5 million homes with that kind of access, as compared with 98 million homes with television, 80 million with VCRs, 70 million with cable and 15 million with satellite TV. Given that disparity, most online entertainment companies are attempting to make money by selling their work to others. Seattle-based AtomFilms distributes its films free on the Web but sells the same material to cable television stations and air carriers such as Delta Air Lines and British Airways. Hollywood-based iFilm recently announced a partnership with AMC Entertainment to screen a number of its short films in theaters in Los Angeles and New York. Doug Conway, president and chief executive of GalaxyOnline, which now has 26 employees and is funded through private investors, has adopted a similar strategy.Given that per-minute costs for his online films are a hundredth those of a typical television show, Conway believes his company will be able to make quick profits by selling DVDs, videocassettes, T-shirts, mouse pads and sundry other items based on its original videos.