AOL’s Spy Princess to Double as Star in Traditional Media

America Online has enlisted the help of a super-agent to boost revenue and improve relations with other Time Warner Inc. divisions. Her name: Princess Natasha.

Five years ago, the idea behind the $99-billion marriage of new and old media -- a corporate union still rued by many employees and shareholders -- was that Time Warner would create the programming and AOL would help distribute it online.

In a twist on that notion, Time Warner plans to announce today that it will turn AOL’s Web-based show “Princess Natasha” into a TV cartoon and series of books distributed by other Time Warner outlets.

The company’s Cartoon Network and Little, Brown & Co. publishing unit paid AOL an undisclosed amount for rights to the 5-minute show about the adventures of a feisty princess who’s also a spy. Independent producer Animation Collective in New York created the show, which has been streamed more than 1 million times on AOL’s kids’ section.

“The fact that they have an audience of millions already tuning in to it is huge,” said Bob Higgins, senior vice president of programming and original animation at Cartoon Network. “Typically we don’t get that when we premiere a show.”

When “Princess Natasha” starts running on Cartoon Network this summer, probably on Sunday nights, it won’t be the first animated show to make the jump from the Web to TV. Viacom Inc.’s Showtime Networks picked up “Queer Duck” from Icebox.com and started running it with “Queer as Folk” and other shows in 2002.

But analysts said “Princess Natasha” marked a potential turning point for AOL, with the Internet group showing it could get along with other Time Warner units and generate audiences for original programming.

“People have been waiting for this kind of thing to happen,” said Jupiter Research analyst David Card.

Cartoon Network bought 20 episodes, and Little, Brown signed a deal for at least six books. AOL went to them before their competitors, executives involved in the deal said, but neither business got a family discount.

Malcolm Bird, the AOL senior vice president who oversees kids’ programming, said he expected that licensing “Princess Natasha” and other Web shows to offline media would eventually generate “considerable” revenue for AOL.

“The Web,” he said, “is becoming a place where real content with a real audience is being developed.”