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An Irvine, Calif.-based company called KoldCast last month launched a free broadband video service, called KoldCast TV, that features a range of on-demand programming and support for full-screen HD. The company also launched three different media players, designed for use by its content partners and viewers (the players can be embedded in blogs and social networking sites), as well as a service, dubbed CenterStage, that allows aspiring entertainers to create their own microchannels. “The official launch of KoldCast TV represents the opening of a sophisticated new distribution channel for television and movie production companies, filmmakers, producers, musicians and entertainers of all disciplines who are quickly recognizing that the Internet can now efficiently deliver programming into significant numbers of households and businesses in an entertaining fashion,” KoldCast president and CEO, David S. Samuels, said in a prepared statement. “In its heart, the entertainment industry knows, as do many savvy viewers, that we are at the beginning of the new golden age of television. We have designed our network site in a way that allows viewers to enjoy finding and watching the fresh and creative on-demand programming available to them. The number-one complaint we hear about the standard video-centric Web sites is that good programming is just too hard to find. The key words here are ‘good programming’ and ‘hard to find.’”

According to its press materials, KoldCast believes that “consumer familiarity with traditional television guides and menu systems is something to be respected.” It therefore uses a simple, four-level menu system to guide viewers to programming: 1) Network, 2) Channel, 3) Show and 4) Episode. At the first level, viewers select a “network” of interest, such as the Comedy network. Once a network is selected, its channels are displayed (for example, Comedy Series). Viewers then select a show from the channel, and an episode from the show. The service also offers various interactive/community features, such as commenting and blogging: however, in order to take advantage of those, visitors to the site must register.

According to KoldCast, its three Advanced Media Players can be individually programmed by the company to play any subset of its programming in any venue. In addition to full-screen and HD support, the players include a drop-down “eye lid” that can be branded by the company’s partners. The three players are the AMP01 (a single-video embeddable player), the AMP12 (a 12-video custom programmable player with co-branding features), and the Affily8 (an eight-video custom programmable player with co-branding and graphics-support features).

KoldCast describes its CenterStage service as “an entertainment initiative that combines Talent MicroChannels with a searchable database and Network Channels.” According to the company, the service allows talent to create their own channel, featuring their own video uploads, still photos and biographical information: viewers can communicate with the talent via a blind messaging system. “We have just begun to reach out to the entertainment industry to introduce them to CenterStage, where any talented individual pursuing a genuine career within the entertainment industry can create their own personal MicroChannel on KoldCast TV,” Samuels explained. “Here they can introduce themselves and their work to our viewers and to the entertainment industry at large, so we have organized this collection of MicroChannels into a searchable database that can be easily mined for this purpose. And soon, some of the best videos from these MicroChannels will be featured on our CenterStage Network and related Channel line-ups. It’s very cool and there is much more coming.” The company says that ad revenues generated by each MicroChannel will be shared with the channel’s talent, and that the next release of the service will allow musicians to sell music directly through their MicroChannels.

Since its launch, KoldCast has announced programming deals with entertainment news and picture agency, Splash News (provides its service with multiple daily installments of breaking entertainment news), and with Michael Airington, the comedian behind the MySpace blog, “Views from a Broad.” The latter deal will see KoldCast TV co-producing (with Airington) 24 original episodes of a new show entitled, “Showbiz Schmooze with Ester Goldberg.”