Showtime Lines Up Partners for Tara Launch

NEW YORK, January 13: Showtime has lined up an extensive promotional campaign for its new original series United States of Tara, offering up the premiere episode to a host of cable and satellite on-demand platforms, online destinations and mobile content portals.

The series, starring Toni Collette as a woman with multiple personalities, was created by Steven Spielberg and developed by Juno scribe Diablo Cody. It launches on Showtime on January 18 at 9 p.m., alongside the first episode of the final season of The L Word and the premiere of the second season of Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

All three programs will be available online on key entertainment, social networking and blogging destinations, including cable, telco and satellite affiliate broadband portals and mobile phones. Partners include TV.com, Yahoo, YouTube, MSN, Veoh, Netflix, CBS Audience Network, Facebook, MobiTV, Verizon’s V-Cast Mobile TV and AT&T Mobile TV via MediaFLO. Plus, there are 24 cable, telco and satellite providers participating in the campaign, with the first episode of United States of Tara on broadband and free on demand ten days before its TV premiere. They include Time Warner, Comcast, DIRECTV, Cox and AT&T. DIRECTV will also air the episode on its linear channel The 101.

—By Mansha Daswani