Maker Studios hasn’t finished up its $500 million deal to sell itself to Disney quite yet. But that isn’t stopping it from spending money on other websites: The video network has invested in Jukin Media, a company that aggregates clips of people falling down or screwing up.
Trip, Fall and Raise a Million Dollars: Jukin Media, the FailArmy People, Grabs Money from Maker Studios, Bertelsmann
Other people’s problems = a nice video business.
Peter Kafka covered media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.
Jukin, whose best-known property is the “FailArmy” channel on YouTube, says it generates 450 million views a month. But in addition to its YouTube presence, it also makes money licensing blooper clips and other videos to TV shows; if you’ve watched “Tosh.0,” you’ve probably seen their stuff.
Maker is one of several investors in the $1 million round; others include Bertelsmann Digital Media, the Launchpad LA incubator and angel investors including Richard Wolpert, an Internet veteran who has worked at Disney, Apple and RealNetworks.
Maker’s cash contribution is part of its previously announced “strategic agreement” with Jukin. That deal calls for Maker to help Jukin distribute its clips, build out its off-YouTube presence and create shows with the studio.
If you want to get a better idea of what Jukin is up to, here’s a recent clip, with a self-explanatory title — “Best Fails of the Week”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY6RHeI6KB8&list=UUPDis9pjXuqyI7RYLJ-TTSA
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
