News brief: Amazon adds another comedy pilot

Amazon Studios, the production arm of online retailer Amazon, has added the eighth comedy project to its pilot line-up.

Betas is about a group of tech-savvy millennial characters trying to connect with the world and comes from Michael Lehmann (Heathers, Dexter, True Blood) and Michael London (Sideways, The Visitor). It joins the previously announced Alpha House, Browsers, Dark Minions, Onion News Empire, Supanatural, Those Who Can’t, and, earlier this week, Zombieland on Amazon’s slate.

It will broadcast for free on Prime Instant Video in the US and Lovefilm in the UK and Germany.

“Amazon is giving us a chance to work outside the TV bureaucracies and connect directly with audiences hungry for original content, and Betas is the perfect match for that model,” said London.