Then he hit a wall. The Firm, Mr. Kwatinetz’s forward-thinking version of a talent management company, imploded in 2008. It was the victim of outsize ambitions most prominently exhibited in an ill-fated takeover of Michael Ovitz’s Artist Management Group.

Now comes Act 2.

After a quiet few years, Mr. Kwatinetz, 46, is again kicking up dust here, and this time he is trying to change the face of television. Prospect Park, his new production and management company, plans to introduce in January the Online Network, a channel that is piped into homes via the Internet.

It is a bold bet that the Web — because of the proliferation of broadband, Internet-enabled TVs and the iPad — is now a practical way to funnel traditional shows to viewers. The channel will initially feature new episodes of the soap operas “One Life to Live” and “All My Children,” both canceled by ABC but saved by Mr. Kwatinetz in a last-minute deal. Other shows are planned.

“Seeing the music business morph as it did allows me to see, perhaps earlier than some, what is happening to television,” Mr. Kwatinetz said in an interview. “A lot of the same mistakes are being made, and in that is opportunity.”

Mr. Kwatinetz (pronounced KWAH-tin-ets) thinks that television companies, like the record labels before them, are moving too slowly to embrace how viewers want to consume their content: with ease, everywhere. Networks have followed their customers online, but only to a point; the goal is to protect existing revenue streams at all costs.

Mr. Kwatinetz, who has a Harvard law degree, talks about the Internet as a pure distribution play. Too many media companies, he says, treat Web users as a different class of customer and serve them entertainment based on how they are obtaining it rather than what they might like. If the popularity of streamed 30-minute and 60-minute shows on Netflix and Hulu is any indication, consumers are ready to move beyond using the Web for bite-size video, he said.

Hearing Mr. Kwatinetz speak about Hollywood’s future can seem like a fascinating college lecture — and, in fact, he teaches a media course at Northwestern University. But he faces enormous hurdles in realizing his goals.

For starters, he needs to raise the money. The Online Network is intended to be financed by Prospect Park, which Mr. Kwatinetz said was profitable, and outside partners. He does not yet have all of those investors lined up — he won’t say how much money he is seeking — but independent investment bankers who have been briefed on Mr. Kwatinetz’s plans said there was strong interest.

Another hurdle: Prospect Park wants to introduce the Online Network in mid-January, when “One Life to Live” is scheduled to end its run on ABC. (“All My Children” concluded last month.) Mr. Kwatinetz still needs to complete deals with various unions to move the shows online with current cast members. Whether the longtime star of “All My Children,” Susan Lucci, will stay is unclear, and negotiations with her continue.

Plans call for new episodes to be streamed on the Web site and then made available on living room on-demand systems and, a few weeks later, on a traditional cable channel. Mr. Kwatinetz intends to make additional money by selling advertising and syndicating the shows to other Web sites like Hulu or Google.

Some people in Hollywood are rolling their eyes about the network, which Prospect Park plans to brand as “TOLN.” Isn’t Mr. Kwatinetz the same person who, a decade ago, went around boasting that the Firm was the next AOL Time Warner? Are viewers — especially older soap opera fans — truly ready to get their shows from a Web site?

But some powerful figures are taking Mr. Kwatinetz seriously, and point out that it was the soap operas that helped ease the transition from radio to television.

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