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Funny or Die UK to close

Funny or Die UK (FoD UK), the British arm of Will Ferrell’s comedy video website, is closing after just 18 months despite previous claims it would break even this year.

A joint venture between Funny or Die US, Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams, plus UK indie Hat Trick, FoD UK will shut down on Friday.

The site, headed by comedy writer James Serafinowicz, was previously thought to be surviving the tricky comedy web portal field but will now be absorbed within its US progenitor.

Hat Trick said in a statement that following an assessment of the past 18 months, “the decision has been made to merge the UK site and content into the American Funny Or Die website.” It did not say how much it had invested in the venture.

It is Hat Trick’s second unsuccessful foray into the comedy portal business, after an earlier JV with Virgin Media, Comedy Flannel, also bit the dust. Other UK players in the space, such as Warner Music Entertainment’s Comedybox and RDF Media-backed Comedy Demon, closed down last year.

In an interview with C21 earlier this year, Serafinowicz said that though FoD UK had solid backing from parent Hat Trick Productions and should break even by the end of 2010, he acknowledged that “no-one really knows the model to even break even yet.”

Hat Trick CEO Jimmy Mulville had been even bolder in December, predicting FoD UK could break even in the first months of this year. It had been gaining “hundreds of thousands of hits a month,” according to Serafinowicz. But according to Hat Trick, these visitors were arriving at the UK site and then heading off to the US version, so it made more sense to merge the two.

The news comes the day after the BBC revamped its comedy website with a new look and more sketches and an improved archive. C21 revealed in March that FoD UK had been hoping to strike a web production deal with the BBC but this has fallen through. The pubcaster is now one of the few web comedy outlets left in the territory.

FoD UK was launched in 2007 with Little Britain duo Walliams and Lucas contributing material, along with Serafinowicz’s comedian/actor brother Peter. It is not yet clear whether they will continue to play a role moving forwards.

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