A rainbow-colored head fills the screen and devours its prey, chewing with its mouth open, smacking its lips and flashing its teeth.

This is not a horror movie; the screen is not the silver screen but a computer monitor, and the animated head is nibbling at the logo of Nibblebox.com--an Internet media venture that Harvard-Radcliffe TV (HRTV) recently joined as an affiliate.

The glitzy multimedia sequence is visitors' first introduction to the site, which shows short video, audio and animated productions called "nibbles."

With Nibblebox's technical help, HRTV plans to put its shows--including the occasional news show called "Harvard Television News" and "The Asylum," a sit-com about students who run a bar out of their common room--on its own website within the week. Until now, the programs have been shown in Loker Commons.

HRTV also plans to develop ideas for shorter segments for the Nibblebox website.

"They're a little more interested in short nibbles of content [than longer shows]," said HRTV President Michael E. Yank '02.

"They made a comparison to when television was invented," Yank said of the site's creators.

Early in the life of that medium, writers and producers found that 30-minute format of sitcoms and hour-long dramas suited their viewers. Yank said Nibblebox believes their short segments will become the staple of Internet entertainment in the same way sitcoms are television's standard fare.