(1 July 2008 1:00 pm)

MUMBAI: US media conglomerate Viacom's MTVN Entertainment Group has relaunched atomfilms as Atom.com.

Atom.com is a digital comedy network that distributes original programming across the Internet, handheld devices, gaming platforms, mobile phones, television and other gadgets.

Atom.com aims to offer professionally produced comedy and provide indie and user generated content creators a path to "go pro" themselves. It also aims at providing a direct path to exposure and future development opportunities on the web, television and beyond.

With this launch, Atom.com becomes Comedy Central's exclusive partner and anchor brand for original digital comedy content, developing new properties for multiplatform distribution, building an online community of creators and viewers. It will also produce a half-hour TV series, Atom TV, that debuted on Comedy Central this week.

MTVN Entertainment Group executive VP digital media Erik Flannigan says, "We want Atom.com to provoke, break rules and uncover talent much as Comedy Central did at its inception on cable. If we get this right, Atom.com will be our punk-rock label and help to bring fresh, provocative comedy to every screen our audience is watching."

Atom.com GM Scott Roesch says, "We couldn't ask for a better partner than Comedy Central as we begin this quest for comedy talent, convergent sponsorship sales, multiplatform distribution and, of course, global domination."

At launch, Atom.com is premiering four new web series.

Border Patrol centers on three slacker friends who spend their weekends in lawn chairs at the Mexican border determined to stop illegal immigration.

Demonstrating Atom's direct pipeline, Steven & Stephen is about two groin-conjoined, Internet-obsessed twins.

Stickman Exodus sees stick figures, doodled into existence by a bored high-school student, search for the "promised page" in the kid's notebook.

Benny, Escaped Convict chronicles the exploits of a foulmouthed rodent on the lam.