Maker Studios partners with Just for Laughs

Maker Studios — the digital media company behind YouTube successes such as “Epic Rap Battles of History,” Kassem G, the Shaytards and PewDiePie — is teaming up with Just for Laughs Group, best known for its long-running annual Montreal comedy festival.

Maker, based in Culver City, will manage the Just for Laughs Gags channel on YouTube, which features hidden-camera prank videos, and create a new channel for the Canadian company’s three decades worth of stand-up videos from its festivals. Maker will also create a new Just for Laughs website.

In addition, the two companies will develop original comedy shows at the Just for Laughs festival in July. The resulting videos will be posted on Maker’s channels, such as Nacho Punch.

ON LOCATION: Where the cameras roll

The partnership will provide more comedy video content for Maker and enable Just for Laughs to improve its presence on the Web and capitalize on its backlog of videos.

“This partnership will allow us to bring Just for Laughs’ hilarious content to a global audience of online viewers, and work together to create opportunities for the next generation of comedians to develop original programming at the annual festival,” Chris M. Williams, Maker’s chief audience officer, said in a statement.

Maker, which has about 330-million subscribers, says its videos get more than 4.5-billion views a month.

ALSO:

‘Walking Dead’ creator Frank Darabont, CAA sue AMC over profit

Fred Seibert foresees ‘next golden age of animation’ on Internet

TV ratings: ‘Voice’ hits performance finale low among viewers 18-49

Follow on Twitter: @rfaughnder

[email protected]