ON Networks joins the crowded online TV market

ON Networks, a yet another media company offering online high-definition TV programming, said it has raised $12 million in a second round of financing.

The Austin, Tex. company raised the money from Accel Partners, the Silicon Valley firm that backed Facebook, along with Austin Ventures and AT&T, who led the company’s second round of $4 million in November.

There is an increasing number of these companies, none boasting anything particularly new in terms of technology, but all trying to exploit the transition by people to watch more content online. As mentioned, every Silicon Valley firm appears to want to get behind this trend: In the same genre are companies like National Banana, Funny or Die, Rockin Cat (see coverage), Crackle (see coverage), DECA, Next New Networks (see coverage), Revision3 — the list goes on.

The company is building a “virtual studio” to product new shows, and also forging relationships with networks to distribute the shows. How it plans to build a new media company from Austin is another question (Austin is a very cool town, but it’s not New York or Hollywood, where most of the competition is).

It says it has 25 shows (with more than 400 episodes so far), including Play Value, The 5-Minute Drill, BackPack Picnic, Budget Health Nut, Cocktails on the Fly, Golf Tips, and Stump the Chef.