JibJab moves to MSN for the premiere of its 'Big Box Mart' spoof.

JIBJAB Media Inc.'s latest animated short spoof, "Big Box Mart," drew millions of viewers in its first week, but not on Yahoo Inc.'s media site, the former home of the Santa Monica company's 2004 spoof of the presidential elections.

"Big Box Mart," an irreverent spoof of outsourcing and consumer culture, was released exclusively on Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Network, signaling a change of allegiance for the Santa Monica-based Spiridellis brothers, creators of the cartoons. It also showed that media Web sites have become just as fractious and competitive as their television network counterparts.

There was no bidding war to prompt the Web move, said Jib Jab co-founder Gregg Spiridellis. "There are no real rules to how these sorts of distribution deals are structured." he said. "There were just subtle differences with how they wanted to integrate their brands with our site, and how much control we had over the look and feel of our site."

The pair's next four short cartoons will be distributed through MSN, according to the deal. Financial terms were not disclosed, but MSN will be selling video ads on JibJab's Web site, bringing in more revenue for JibJab.

The day it was released, JibJab's servers became overwhelmed by viewers trying to watch "Big Box Mart." Those viewing it on MSN had no trouble; MSN's network has far greater capacity. (Despite the exclusivity of the distribution arrangement, JibJab's clips are always posted on its own site.) JibJab has eight employees, but just two months ago, there were only four. "We are a tiny, tiny company," Spiridellis said. "We work on one production at a time."

Staff Reporter Hilary Potkewitz can be reached at [phone], ext. 226, or by e-mail at [e-mail].