Vogue magazine isn’t about displaying cheap knockoffs. So in keeping with its expensive tastes, the magazine’s Vogue.tv video site is prepping a $3 million, 12-episode reality series called Model.Live. With eight minutes per show, WSJ calculates that’s $31,000 for each minute. Contrast that with the average online video, which Forrester says generally costs around $4,500.

Of course, most online video series can’t attract big commitments from marketers like clothing retailer Express LLC, which is said to have agreed to pay something in the “low seven figures” to be Model.Live’s lead sponsor. In return, the Conde Nast property has promised Express it will receive 83.4 million impressions on Bebo.com during the three-month life of the series. And though that number is hard to measure, Express is willing to take the gamble. The company felt comfortable after working on a much smaller video series with Ford Models last year, garnering two million hits after the modeling agency ran the videos on its own site. So whether or not Vogue.tv can fulfill its guarantee on how many users will view the ad, Express should be able to get greater exposure greater, as Model.Live will also run on Hulu, Veoh and AOL’s (NYSE: TWX) community site Bebo.com, which aims to connect viewers with the series’ stars. 

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