SplashCast Media has had some ups and its had its downs.  The company raised $4 million in funding and even hired former TechCrunch editor Marshall Kirkpatrick during the Web 2.0 craze.  SplashCast announced that they will be shutting down in the next few weeks according to a company blog post.

SplashCast designed widgets that were capable of aggregating different forms of multimedia.  This included audio, video, RSS feeds, and photos.  Later on the company launched a new service called Social TV that allowed users to watch TV shows on Facebook and MySpace.

“At each turn, we moved from what ultimately proved to be a declining market opportunity to a larger opportunity,” stated SplashCast CEO Michael Berkley. “We have a lot to be proud of. In addition we have a lot of lessons learned to humbly take with us as we move on.”

Publishers were not willing to pay SplashCast to use their service.  Venture capitalists were also not willing to “bet” further on the company.  This is why the company has officially decided to shut down.  It was a good run, guys.  Best of luck on future endeavors.

The last time I wrote about SplashCast, it was around August 2007.  However a fewof weeks ago, the company started building widgets that revolve around TV shows available on Hulu.  When the company first started out, they allowed users to creates widgets that centers around user-generated content.  That trend fizzled out shortly after the term Web 2.0 even came about.

SplashCast attempted to raise a Series B round of funding, but was unable to do so.  The company’s first round was about $4 million by Mark Bayliss.  Rather than trying to keep the company afloat, SplashCast is now looking for a buyer.  Michael Berkley, CEO of SplashCast decided to focus more on Social TV.

SplashCast claims to be receiving 5.8 million unique viewers per month that are streaming 7.2 million videos.  These visits come through 25 SplashCast channels.  Despite all this traffic, SplashCast is having a hard time monetizing it.  This is why they have decided to put themselves up for sale.

By selling off their core business, this will give Berkley time to focus more on the Social TV aspect of their business.

[via TechCrunch]