Goodbye Grouper, Hello Crackle

Sony is shutting down its video-sharing site Grouper and relaunching it as Crackle. Despite just having bought the old Grouper for $65 mil, it got a lowly 4.3 million viewers a month.

Crackle will be a bit different with contests and the top-rated videos will be given funding, ranging from $2,000 to $20,000, for additional episodes and a chance to pitch feature film ideas to executives at Columbia Pictures, a Sony company. Animators can show off to Sony Pictures Television with a chance to turn their short video into feature-length Sony animated films.