ABC is expected to announce today a deal to bring about 20 separately produced original mini-episodes of Lost to a mobile phone provider, presumed to be Verizon’s VCast service, early next year.
The ancillary "mobisodes," each several minutes long, would be produced by Buena Vista Home Entertainment and later packaged as part of a second-season DVD release, sources say.
The deal would follow 20th Century Fox Television’s earlier entry into mobisodes with 24.
ABC recently announced a deal with Apple’s iTunes to run repurposed episodes of Lost and other series on the iPod service, but this would be its first original wireless content.
Because of the project’s small scope, neither ABC nor series producer Touchstone Television will be involved in the production. It will instead be handled under the auspices of Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.
The mobisodes will reportedly be titled the "Lost Video Diaries," with two new stranded characters introduced that are not currently featured on the primetime version. A tie-in connecting the two could come later, however.
Verizon Wireless is considered the most likely candidate to align with ABC for its VCast pay service, which charges $15 a month, or 99 cents per episode.
