Icebox staff face axe despite broadcast first

US creator of web-based animation Icebox.com has announced a licensing deal with Fox Broadcasting for a half-hour pilot of one of its cartoons that will make the company a pioneer in the field of internet broadcasting.

Icebox's online series, Zombie College, by writer/producer Eric Kaplan, will be the first series to be purchased by a major US television network for broadcast over the internet. However, the news has not stopped the company announcing massive job cuts - with half of its staff facing the axe in cost cutting measures aimed to take the company closer to profit. In a statement, Steve Stanford, CEO and Co-Founder of Icebox, said: "We are confident that the company will reach profitability by the end of 2001. "We will accomplish this by aggressively reducing our production costs while maximising all of the revenue generating opportunities available to us."