Over the last decade, several professionalising amateur Australian content creators making web series, distributed on multiple open platforms, broke into the television industry and developed promising careers. The limited scholarly research into the career trajectories and sustainability of web series creators has typically been conducted as normative critique of the value of web series labour. In contrast, we look processually and empirically at the career trajectories of 26 creators following their first publicly funded web series between 2011 and 2020. The creators’ pathways are varied, but web series facilitated a pathway to career sustainability for roughly three quarters of the cohort. Web series functioned as (1) a calling card for native online creators, (2) a format facilitating career consolidation or acceleration for television professionals and (3) a format enabling career diversification for filmmakers. Overall, they can be a market-tested talent training ground for television, especially broadcaster-video-on-demand or subscription-video-on-demand services.

在过去的十年里，几位专业的澳大利亚业余内容创作者制作了网络系列，在多个开放平台上发布，进入了电视行业并发展了有前途的职业。对网络连续剧创作者的职业轨迹和可持续性的有限学术研究通常是作为对网络连续剧劳动价值的规范性批评而进行的。相比之下，我们从过程和经验上观察了 26 位创作者在 2011 年至 2020 年间首次公开资助的网络系列之后的职业轨迹。创作者的路径各不相同，但网络系列为大约四分之三的队列促进了职业可持续发展的途径. 网络系列作为 (1) 本地在线创作者的名片，(2) 一种促进电视专业人士职业整合或加速的格式；(3) 一种促进电影制作人职业多样化的格式。总体而言，它们可以成为经过市场检验的电视人才培训基地，尤其是广播视频点播或订阅视频点播服务。