VancouverIAM.com, a new local website, is establishing the I AM Network Fund to assist local Web-TV series producers with $200 to $1,000 per episode, according to George Fleming, CEO of SoMedia Networks Inc., which owns the site.

“It could be described as a micro-production fund,” Fleming said by phone. He added that these web series will compete with traditional television. “The demographic that our sites are focused on—the 18-to-35 demographic—is not watching [traditional] television any longer, and is getting most of their information off the web today.”

Launched April 30, the site features and aggregates Vancouver-specific blogs, vlogs (video logs), and web series. It will be the flagship in a network of city-based social-media websites set to spring up across Canada and the U.S. over the next year.