That’s right, Grease is the word that you heard. 
 
 Fox is getting into the live musical game with a live three-hour version of the Broadway high-school classic. The network’s Grease Live special is billed as the first-ever live broadcast TV production of the 1971 musical from Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs, which also inspired the 1978 hit film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. 
 
 “From Broadway to film, and across generations, Grease is one of the most beloved musical stories ever told – and we can’t wait to bring it to our air in a spectacular live event,” said Shana C. Waterman, senior VP of event series for Fox. “Its iconic characters and addictive songs make it the perfect fit for Fox, and we’re going to give it the kind of star power and production quality to make every Sandy, Danny, Rizzo and Kenickie out there want to get up and sing along.” 
 
 The move is sure to inspire cries of “copycat!” from industry observers and the folks at NBC, which kicked off the live musical event special last fall with A Sound of Music Live. NBC’s venture racked up nearly 22 million viewers when including DVR playback. Some predicted the network’s next live project would be Grease, but the Peacock opted for Peter Pan, which is expected to air Dec. 4. Now here comes Fox with arguably the most coveted Broadway title for a live TV adaptation. But Fox would likely point out that its own 2009 series Glee really brought musicals back into modern prime-time, a show that NBC was accused of copying with its far less successful Smash. And then you could bring all of this full circle and say Glee is essentially a modern-day Grease. 
 
 Also, NBC has explored Grease in prime-time before. In 2007, Fox’s rival aired a short-lived reality effort titled Grease: You’re the One That I Want, where contestants competed for the lead roles in a Broadway revival. Fox also previously tapped Grease, with a fourth-season episode of Glee titled “Glease.” 
 
 Fox plans to air Grease Live, produced by Paramount Television, sometime next year (presumably on a Sunday, since the network only programs two hours a night on weeknights, but Fox could get special permission from its affiliates for a three-hour telecast). 
 
 What do you think of Fox doing Grease Live? Take our poll: ||||| Yahoo’s chief executive, Marissa Mayer, is about to dive into the shark tank of television-style original video. 
 
 Ms. Mayer announced on Monday evening that Yahoo is commissioning two original TV-length comedy series that will be shown exclusively on its websites and mobile apps. 
 
 Yahoo is also unveiling a partnership with Live Nation, the large concert promoter, to stream one concert live on Yahoo every day for a year. 
 
 The moves plunge Yahoo directly into the increasingly competitive world of high-quality digital video. Technology companies like Amazon.com, Netflix, Google, Hulu and even Microsoft are challenging traditional producers of television content, such as HBO, AMC and the broadcast and cable networks, for fickle viewers. 
 
 “Users expect online content to be as good as, if not better than, TV,” Ms. Mayer said at the company’s annual presentation of new digital offerings to advertisers at Lincoln Center. Yahoo has made serious forays into video in the past, only to pull back after disappointing results. 
 
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 But Ms. Mayer and her lieutenants are betting that a big push into original content, both with video and digital magazines, will draw legions of new viewers and advertisers to the long-plodding company. 
 
 In committing to eight episodes each for the two comedy series, Yahoo is pledging to spend many millions of dollars in a business where experienced programmers often waste tens of millions before they find a single hit — and very often those become hits or flops for reasons no one can anticipate or explain. 
 
 “We are in an era of unprecedented change in video,” Kathy Savitt, Yahoo’s chief marketing officer, said in an interview before the announcement. “We believe we can be the connective tissue between creators and viewers.” 
 
 Yahoo, which has about 800 million monthly users, has been sprucing up its video channel, Yahoo Screen, by adding a new mobile app and more content from “Saturday Night Live,” Comedy Central and Vevo, a music video site. 
 
 But it’s not clear that visitors think of Yahoo, with its plethora of news, sports, weather and other information, as a place to kick back and watch a show, especially when it doesn’t have a large library of popular content. 
 
 “It’s a me-too gesture,” said David Hallerman, a principal analyst with eMarketer. “In order to get audience for original programming, people have to know about it, they have to want to see it and it has to be easy to watch.” 
 
 Americans spend nearly an hour a day watching video online, according to eMarketer, and the associated ad spending is projected to rise 41 percent this year, to $5.89 billion. 
 
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 But traditional television is still capturing more of the new ad dollars that marketers are committing, Mr. Hallerman said. 
 
 Ms. Savitt said Yahoo saw big opportunities to bring in advertisers with its programs, which will include two weekly shows anchored by Katie Couric and several other lifestyle shows linked to digital magazines that Yahoo is starting on travel, beauty, fashion and entertainment. 
 
 All of the new content will be free to users, supported by traditional video ads as well as new formats like sponsored landing pages — web pages that hold the video player and surround the player with an ad — for each episode. 
 
 For the comedy series, she said, Yahoo will be paying fees comparable to what cable and broadcast networks pay. That can range from $400,000 to well over $1 million per episode. But “we’re planning for this, even in our early days, to be break even, if not profitable,” she said. 
 
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 The cereal brand Kellogg has already agreed to sponsor the Live Nation channel. And Yahoo has been working with other consumer brands like Kraft on new video advertising formats. 
 
 One of the new shows, called “Other Space,” will feature the adventures of a misfit spaceship crew in an alternate universe. It marks the return to the television format of Paul Feig, one of the creative minds behind “Freaks and Geeks,” who more recently has focused on movies like “Bridesmaids” and “The Heat.” 
 
 The other show, “Sin City Saints,” will be set in the front office of a fictional pro basketball expansion team owned by a Silicon Valley billionaire. 
 
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 Michael Tollin, an executive producer of the basketball show, said in an interview that Yahoo’s young, mobile, sports-loving audience was a great fit for the series. “They are fishing for their phones, tablets or laptops,” he said, not watching traditional TV. 
 
 All eight episodes of each series will be posted online all at once for binge watching, probably in early 2015, Ms. Savitt said. Two more series will be announced soon. 
 
 Warren Littlefield, who led NBC’s programming in the 1990s and is now an independent producer, said the lure with outlets like Yahoo starts with creative freedom and extends to the simplification of the development process. “You put out a presentation script; they like the vision and then you get an order straight to series,” he said. That contrasts to the network system of ordering a raft of pilots, which then get tested and compete for very few spots on a schedule. 
 
 But Mr. Littlefield said he would “be very interested to see what the content looks like on Yahoo and what they do with it.” 
 
 He has just started “Fargo,” one of the best-reviewed new dramas of the TV season on the FX cable network, which is heavily promoting the show. 
 
 Would he bring such a project to Yahoo? “That kind of promotional noise would be difficult to duplicate on a digital platform,” he said. 
 
 Jeff Gaspin, the former entertainment president at NBC, said that if the fees were comparable, Yahoo or other digital outlets would have no trouble finding show creators willing to sign on. 
 
 “If they pay good fees and you control the ownership and the international rights, you can make money,” Mr. Gaspin said. ||||| Fox is taking a page from NBC's The Sound of Music Live. 
 
 The network has ordered a three-hour live broadcast of Grease set to air during 2015, Fox announced Monday. 
 
 The live event will feature a young ensemble cast and be based on the 1971 Broadway musical of the same name, with the book, lyrics and music by the team of Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs and the 1978 hit feature film that starred Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. The film has grossed nearly $400 million worldwide, ranking as the highest-grossing movie musical ever. Grease Live hails from Paramount Television production, with the cast and production partners to be announced at a later date. 
 
 PHOTOS: Broadway Musicals That Have Sung Their Way to the Big Screen 
 
 "From Broadway to film, and across generations, Grease is one of the most beloved musical stories ever told -- and we can't wait to bring it to our air in a spectacular live event," said Shana C. Waterman, senior vp event series at Fox. "Its iconic characters and addictive songs make it the perfect fit for Fox, and we’re going to give it the kind of star power and production quality to make every Sandy, Danny, Rizzo and Kenickie out there want to get up and sing along." 
 
 Fox's move to adapt Grease for live TV comes after NBC collected massive ratings returns for its Sound of Music Live broadcast in December. That event, which when factoring in DVR viewing, collected about 22 million total viewers and a 5.6 rating among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. NBC will follow Sound of Music -- which also performed well during a rebroadcast shortly after its original debut -- with a live performance of Peter Pan set for Dec. 4, reteaming with Sound of Music Live and Oscar producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. 
 
 
 
 STORY: 'Peter Pan' Set as NBC's Live 'Sound of Music' Follow-Up 
 
 "It’s incredibly exciting to have one of our first major network productions be based on this universally celebrated Paramount title, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Kevin [Reilly], Joe [Early] and Shana [Waterman] on this epic television event,” Paramount TV president Amy Powell said. "Fox's passion for engaging audiences with bold storytelling and live musical formats make it a perfect home for this special broadcast." 
 
 The live space has become increasingly popular among broadcast and cable networks as overall viewership continues to sag in the DVR-viewing era. The live format helps draw eyeballs and awards-season cachet in an increasingly competitive landscape and DVR era. 
 
 
 
 For its part, NBC monetized its Sound of Music Live with a soundtrack and DVD as well as the likelihood of repeat broadcasts over the holidays. 
 
 For Fox, the live performance of Grease comes as the network has found tremendous success with musical dramedy Glee, with music from the series helping to inject a nice revenue stream into the network's coffers. 
 
 The live Grease broadcast will mark the second time Fox has featured the iconic film after the network devoted multiple episodes to the movie during an arc on Glee. 
 
 Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com 
 
 Twitter: @Snoodit
– Fox is following NBC into the live musical game with a three-hour adaption of Grease set to air some time next year. The event will feature a young ensemble cast and will be based on the 1971 Broadway musical, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The musical's "iconic characters and addictive songs make it the perfect fit for Fox, and we’re going to give it the kind of star power and production quality to make every Sandy, Danny, Rizzo, and Kenickie out there want to get up and sing along," gushes a network exec. NBC may cry "copycat" after the huge success of its live version of The Sound of Music last year, though Fox could counter that its own Glee series brought musicals back to prime time, notes Entertainment Weekly. In other TV news, Yahoo announced last night that indeed it will enter the world of original video, reports the New York Times. The company has commissioned two comedy series that will be aired exclusively on its website and apps. A spokeswoman says the company plans to at least break even on the venture, which will cost up to $1 million per episode.