October 23, 2007

Gnarley: FunnyOrDie Extends Into Extreme Sports

Duncan Riley

5 comments »

Will Ferrell’s FunnyOrDie video startup is spreading its wings with a new site: ShredOrDie, focused on extreme sports and hosted by pro skateboarder Tony Hawk.

ShredOrDie will seek to mix extreme-sports and celebrity culture in a manner similar to FunnyOrDie’s blending of comedy and celebrity, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Initial site content include Hawk interviewing Lance Armstrong, snowboarder Shaun White, Christian Slater and skateboarder Ryan Sheckler, along with a range of action videos from sports including skateboarding and snowboarding. ShredOrDie also will feature user-generated video.

FunnyOrDie has had a mixed reception to date, starting with a bang as Will Ferrell’s initial clips gained widespread viral views, to only give way to lower traffic. More recently FunnyOrDie saw another surge after hosting the spoof Eva Longoria sex tape. It will be interesting to see whether Ferrell’s model will successfully work in a different vertical.

Sphere It

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments

Rajan Tawate - October 23rd, 2007 at 8:12 pm PDT

I wonder from where so much user generated video comes from.

Looks that there are more video sites than video uploading users.

http://www.meetingflex.com

Steve Ballmer - October 23rd, 2007 at 8:18 pm PDT

Funny crap! I mean that literally.

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

Noah Ready-Campbell - October 23rd, 2007 at 9:39 pm PDT

I like the customized player they use. Frame-by-frame, slow motion, and 5-seconds-backward will all definitely be used and appreciated by this crowd.

Also, strangely, I’ve found that YouTube and other broad video sites don’t have a lot of quality extreme sports footage that is easy to find, so they are definitely fulfilling a need.

And getting Tony Hawk on-board is wonderful PR. If they can get the word out, I think this site will do well. They have a pretty targeted audience, too, so they may be able to generate relatively high CPMs.

Jon - October 24th, 2007 at 3:15 am PDT

Youtube - the walmart of online video, Will’s sites - the specialized big box stores + celebrity. Interesting business model.

Jon

Moses - October 24th, 2007 at 7:18 am PDT

The “…ordie” network of sites represents a new development in Hollywood: a smart talent agency (CAA) turning content into (potential) equity value upside for clients. Full analysis at moseskagan.com

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.