Moments after arriving at the U8TV headquarters on Richmond Street West in downtown Toronto, I’m greeted by fashionably clad cofounder Lili Shalev, who ushers me directly up to the fledgling enterprise’s high-tech production facility on the second floor.

At least a dozen and a half people are plugging away at computers as I pass through, taking notice of a wall full of TV screens, there to monitor the drama – the unpredictable situations that make for the kind of reality programming every major broadcaster dreams of these days.

The drama that’s ensuing at the moment comes in the form of David, one of the more cavalier lofters, sitting at a table by himself eating dinner, seemingly unfazed by the multitude of cameras that surround him, food falling out his mouth.

After my tour of the production facility, which also includes four fully digital editing suites, a server station and the master control room (that controls all lighting, sound, video and even the blinds and filters on the windows), we head across the hall to the loft. Shalev knocks on the door, explaining that, "We like to respect that this is their home."

Valery, a receptionist in her previous life, answers the door giggling. She and Sandy, the 22-year-old virgin, are heading out somewhere, cameras not in tow.

Dozens of shoes are lined up just inches beyond the threshold, behind which sit two exposed bathtubs that nobody bathes in. They are the few items in the loft that are simply used as props.

I come in about 10 minutes before the half-hour show Fuel is about to be taped, live. It’s a cooking/magazine-style program that takes off on the hot news items of the day. Today it is being hosted by Jennifer and Mathieu, who will make a casserole while interviewing Brian O’Dea, a former drug trafficker who put an ad in the National Post for a job and unexpectedly ended up as the cover story that day.

When I arrive, the hosts are prepping for the show with Michael Dillon, Fuel’s producer and a former dance co-ordinator for Electric Circus. Dillon also produces Home Wrecker, a Monday night music venue for videos and live performances.

Six producers handle the 14 lifestyle programs that make up the network’s three-hour, daily programming block.

The room, an open-concept living room and kitchen, is brightly lit, with, of course, cameras – static and robotic – all over the place.

The four bedrooms are on the opposite end. Two to a room, some co-ed, and only one bathroom.

Each bedroom, dressed up with some of the lofters’ personal touches, has two futons on the floor. The windows are covered and the cameras are present.

All of a sudden I feel old and conservative, wondering what happened to the sanctity of privacy, space, ownership. Even Shalev admits she would never, in a million years, do this – that is live in the loft – although she does put in 14-hour days next door.

Two parallel universes, yin and yang, whatever the description, the dichotomy between U8TV’s production facility and its neighboring loft where eight hipsters live out their urban existence for all to see is a not-so-profound reflection of all things natural. But while it seems perfectly normal that producers, editors, writers and computer technicians work overdrive on U8TV’s production side, slaving away for pennies to keep charged a 24-hour "Internet network," it’s a more than daunting task to try to understand the kind of people who would give themselves up to become the subjects of such an experiment. So, I won’t.

"It’s an efficient cost model," offers Shalev. "There’s no set design, no talent, makeup, no wardrobe, no locations""

And in Citytv fashion, its six VJs, the ones who actually shoot the lofters putting together the stories on the street, shoot and edit all their own stuff.

With as tapered a staff as possible, the business model incorporates three main revenue streams.

Banners, buttons and interstitials make up the bulk of the advertising side.

"Advertisers get very excited about product placement and sponsorship. It’s more subtle brand exposure," says Shalev, a former ad exec with BBDO.

In the near future, the production of netmmercials will provide advertisers with an even greater incentive – the same 30-second commercial that appears on TV can be digitized and encoded to run on the Web. "A double-buy synergy," adds Shalev.

And six to eight months down the line, technology will be available to make the commercials clickable, paving the way to more targetable audiences.

Syndication is an opportunity for licensing fees. As in the case of Life Network (although Life and U8TV are both owned by Alliance Atlantis), which repurposes the day’s highlights into a half-hour daily program, bits and pieces can be sold to unaffiliated broadcasters all over the world.

Finally, e-commerce will allow the company to generate income on the back end, whereby eventually the viewer can buy a product right off the show, like the sweater someone’s wearing, etc.

In September, AAC is launching U8TV, the digital channel. Once that’s up, says Shalev, "the full convergence model will be in place – the interactive station, the show on Life and the digital channel."

But with the digi channel, the lofters will be producing six, rather than three hours of daily programming.

The long-term plan is to – again like the ChumCity model – sell the format around the world, so that ultimately there would be a U8TV London, U8TV L.A."

It would have to be appropriated for different cultures and nuances, but the target audience would remain the same, says Shalev.

Reports for the first month of operation show that 48% of the viewing audience are in the 18-25 demographic, 35% are 25-34, 8% are under 18, and 5% are over 50.

Between Jan. 5 and Feb. 18, the site received three million page impressions and 300,000 video requests.

Whether the fact that Mac users cannot access the interactive video pages affects the numbers is questionable, says cofounder Zev Shalev. But the problem lies with the Microsoft software, which only enables PC users to stream moving images.

"There’s really nothing we can do about it," he adds. *

Samantha Yaffe

-www.u8tv.com