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By BILL CARTER
Published: January 6, 2013

Jerry Seinfeld and Sony Pictures Television have decided to produce a second season of the short-run, experimental Internet series that Mr. Seinfeld created last year, “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” a decision that mimics those made when a new comedy on television gets an order for a second season.

But the whole idea behind the Internet show, Mr. Seinfeld said, was to try to break into a medium other than TV. The decision to produce 24 new episodes, to be announced Monday, puts Mr. Seinfeld and Sony on the same track as sites like Netflix — which has forthcoming series like “Arrested Development” and “House of Cards” — in testing the waters to see if original, network-quality entertainment can emerge on the Internet.

“It’s kind of a new paradigm that we’re trying to create,” Mr. Seinfeld said in a telephone interview, referring to himself and Sony. “I think we both were craving that little sandbox feeling we had when we started out.”

Now they need to chase the same thing that other creators of original Internet content have been after: profits.

“This next go-round we’re going to have to figure out some sort of revenue stream, so it makes more sense,” Mr. Seinfeld said.

The first 10 episodes of “Comedians in Cars” contain no advertising and appear free on the Sony Web site Crackle and at comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com, the show’s own site. The format is a talk show of sorts that features Mr. Seinfeld riding around in vintage cars with friends in the comedy business, making detours to converse over food and coffee. Steve Mosko, the president of Sony Pictures Television, said that almost as soon as Mr. Seinfeld’s new show began appearing, “high-end advertisers were banging on our doors” seeking some level of sponsorship. But, he said, Mr. Seinfeld did not want to turn the first season “into something that gets cluttered.”

Mr. Seinfeld said he was taking ideas that held personal interest and adapting them for the Internet. “I thought of all the things I liked,” he said, which included almost anything about cars, talking with other comics, and coffee in its various forms. He put that together with his observation that all around him “people were watching stuff on phones and pads,” and he concluded, “Well, this is stuff I like, and this could be a match.”

Besides, he said, the show might have special appeal for “comedy geeks,” who “were missing a little piece of the puzzle — the kind of idiotic relationships that we have that are a big part of this life.”

Mr. Seinfeld said he never thought of the concept as something for traditional television; he loved the flexibility of the Internet, particularly no fixed duration for any of the episodes. (Each one runs about 11 to 17 minutes, and guests have included his old “Seinfeld” partner Larry David, Ricky Gervais, Alec Baldwin and Mel Brooks.)

Mr. Seinfeld said he took the idea initially to executives at several Internet-based companies, drawing strong interest. “It was just too hard to explain, and they started asking the usual questions, and I started getting that not-good feeling: Oh, I’m back in the old game,” he said. “And I don’t want to play the old game. I played that game. I want to play a new game.”

He turned to Sony because it distributes the repeats of his sitcom, and he had a good relationship with Mr. Mosko. Mr. Seinfeld owns the “Comedians in Cars” show, and Sony will continue to serve as backer and distributor.

Mr. Mosko said the studio was more than pleased with the first season, which he said attracted more than 10 million unique visitors to Crackle. Developing Internet programming is a crucial part of Sony’s future, he said.

“What’s missing in developing programming for the Internet is patience, trying to get it right,” he said. “We’re both looking at this as a long-term investment.”

As for revenue streams, some form of sponsorship is likely to be attached to the new episodes when they start appearing this spring. But only if advertising can be integrated in the right way, Mr. Mosko said, adding, “We know there’s an opportunity there.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 7, 2013


Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article provided an incorrect Web address for the comedy site Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. It is comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com

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