The five episode series will highlight Asian buns, deli sandwiches and other non-spendy staples that provide a respite from the city’s often surreal dining prices. The magazine’s food writers will also take viewers into the kitchens of hot spots like Pok Pok Ny and Eataly where chefs will show how the affordable creations are made.

And in a city prone to crazes like artisanal mayonaise stores or bacon-on-everything, the video series will of course highlight New York’s latest food trends. Here’s a segment, inspired by the 50th anniversary of McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, that explores a wave of new-fangled fish sandwiches popping up across New York:

The Cheap Eats video is part of Hungry, a new food-centric premium YouTube channel produced by multimedia studio Electus. The channel is also working with Women’s Day to bring the magazines’ Casserole Queens to video.

From a business perspective, the foodie partnerships appear to make strategic sense. New York gets an opportunity ot bring its popular food feature to a polished video stage where it can be discovered by subscribers and tourists alike. Meanwhile, Electus can use the print publication’s credibility to attract an audience for its new channel. As for the cash question, YouTube will help monetize the content and share the proceeds with Electus.

(Image by Altin Osmanaj via Shutterstock)

The show will be a bilingual modern retelling of Romeo & Juliet, with a number of interactive features, including giving viewers the ability to choose on the direction of characters and storylines. Viewers will be able to use Facebook, Twitter and other social media to vote on what the characters should do and what the outcome of certain actions should be. More on B&C and in the release.

Caraccioli-Davis is considered a major force in striking branded content deals and has strong relationships with major marketers. She joined Starcom in 1998. As AdAge notes, some of her most notable branded campaigns include connecting Kellogg’s Pop Tarts as a sponsor for American Idol’s concert tour.

Branded entertainment has become a lot more popular among advertisers. Though, like most advertising, measuring the effectiveness of a campaign is still a major hurdle in terms of attracting more marketing dollars from advertisers.

Electus, announced last year as Silverman was leaving NBC, is all about creating integrated and branded advertising content. It looks like Yahoo, with its reach and scale, could be the first real test. Underscoring the emphasis on advertising, Joanne Bradford, Yahoo SVP of North America revenue and market development, is responsible for the project on that end. The two companies are supposed to work together on delivering the “final custom experiences.”

The formal announcement will be made at CES Friday morning, with Bradford expected to join Silverman at an appearance he already had planned.

Notional is part of ConnectedVentures, the fancy name CollegeHumor cofounders Ricky Van Veen and Josh Abramson came up with a decade ago for a holding company. Video vet Dave Noll, president of the new company, is responsible for TV development and production. Noll, who was president of video production company City Lights, brought TV experience and the production deals for Food Network’s Chopped and HGTV’s Don’t Sweat It; Van Veen, the CEO, brings success creating across platforms, a wicked sense of humor and CollegeHumor’s nimble production skills. The production deals mean money is coming in while they work on development; they also add credibility. As Van Veen put it during an interview with paidContent, “No one wants to be the first one at the dance.”

– Working with Silverman: The new IAC (NSDQ: IACI) video production company shouldn’t be confused with the newest one, which would be Ben Silverman’s not-ready-for-primetime Electus. Van Veen and others at IAC say that the reports that had Notional reporting to Silverman were wrong, although they are working closely together. Both units are part of IAC’s media group, with Van Veen and Silverman each reporting to Diller. Van Veen says the two companies are working on some “awesome” projects together: “We’re doing different things in the same space. When Electus unveils what they’ll do, everybody will see how the sum is greater than its parts.” Diller and Silverman are co-hosting Notional’s launch party with Van Veen and Noll Thursday night at IAC HQ. The invitation, which I took as an attempt to add a kind of gravitas to Notional, was one of the “signs” that spurred the “Silverman is in charge” reports.

– Forget the elevator pitch: For Van Veen and Noll, it comes down to a link. Van Veen: “If your idea can