Free VOD Provider, Ripe Digital Entertainment, Ceases Operations

Ripe Digital Entertainment--a company which offered an advertising-supported free video-on-demand service on Comcast and Time Warner Cable's systems (as well as online and mobile versions of the service) and which, back in 2006, raised $32 million in second-round funding from Hearst-Argyle, Time Warner, Columbia Capital and Rho ventures (it is believed to have raised a total of $45 million since launching in 2004)--has closed down its operations, according to a report Monday in the LA Weekly's Deadline Hollywood Daily blog. The company, which targeted a younger male demographic with such short-form programming offerings as "Girls of FHM" and "Sexy Road Test," now maintains just a skeleton staff and is attempting to find a buyer for its assets, the blog Paid Content reports. Last month, celebrity gossip blog, TMZ, reported that actress/model, Vida Guerra, was suing the company over an "online hosting gig" for which she was allegedly never paid.