Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Group acquires ChannelFlip

Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Group has acquired ChannelFlip, the maker of internet TV shows starring the likes of Harry Hill, David Mitchell and Richard Hammond.

Shine, which was acquired by News Corporation for £415m last year, has bought the London-based ChannelFlip for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition follows Shine's purchase of social gaming firm Bossa Studios, maker of the Monstermind Facebook game, in September last year.

ChannelFlip will be incorporated into Shine Digital, and support the MasterChef and Ashes to Ashes maker's growing multi-platform business.

Co-founded by former QI producer Justin Gayner and Wil Harris, ChannelFlip started by making predominantly online comedies featuring famous faces.

The business has recently expanded, including a deal with Studio Canal to access short-form clips of movies such as Rambo, Spinal Tap and Terminator 2.

With a staff of 16, ChannelFlip claims to be Europe's largest premium network on YouTube, with more than 1m subscribers generating 320m video views, and boasting a combined monthly reach of over 4.4m viewers.

Elisabeth Murdoch, the chief executive and chairman of Shine Group, said: "Wil and Justin are true like-minded creative entrepreneurs and we welcome them and their team to Shine Group.

"They have built ChannelFlip into its leadership position through creative and commercial excellence, producing compelling and innovative online productions whilst persuading advertisers of the deeper relationships they can play within these."

She added: "Following our entry into social gaming with Bossa Studios, this acquisition further underlines Shine Group's relentless commitment to delivering excellence across all platforms and our determination to develop powerful direct to consumer models and connections to audiences, wherever they may be."

In joint statement, Gayner and Harris said: "From our first conversations with Shine, we knew we had found our new home with a company that shared our creative, commercial and technological ambitions for ChannelFlip.

"The opportunities in our market are currently limitless, with audiences rapidly changing their viewing habits to the web, the increased penetration of internet enabled smartphone and TVs, and online video now the fastest growing advertising market globally."