Early pioneer of original online video content KoldCast TV announced last week that it is shutting down. KoldCast co-founder and CEO David S. Samuels said that the company has lost millions of dollars in its efforts to bring original serialized video to the Web. KoldCast’s production company, The Sixth Wall, will also close as the founders focus their energy on sister companies Dynamic Influence and Wild Spirit Studios, that offer production and consulting services for third parties.

“Simply stated, the costs of operation continue to outpace advertising revenue,” wrote Samuels in an email to KoldCast producers on Thursday.

“Moreover, costs associated with audience development, in relation to industry CPM rates, make it impossible to expand our audience without losing money, which we have successfully been able to do for all but one calendar quarter during our life cycle,” he wrote. “You read that right; we have never been able to generate an annual profit in this particular business.”

“KoldCast TV, which was founded close to eight years ago, was home to a number of serialized originals, which the company distributed through its website and through apps for a variety of smart TV platforms,” reports GigaOM. “But while it tried to distinguish itself from sites dominated by user-generated content, it was never capable of capturing huge audiences and compete with the ever-growing online video giant that is YouTube.”

Since KoldCast Entertainment Media was self-funded, Samuels notes that the team “lost every penny of our investment, which is a material multi-million dollar investment.”