The weak ad market is forcing breakout online video studio EQAL out of the original content business, and into the arms of old-school media giants like CBS. EQAL is halting development and funding of its own standalone series, in favor of running the online video properties for existing brands like CBS’ Harpers Island (called Harper’s Globe) or Food Network icon Paula Deen (with a new property called Get Cookin’). It’s just the latest twist in the ongoing online video shakeout—though EQAL remains in better standing than shuttered studios like ManiaTV or 60Frames.

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Co-founder and CEO Miles Beckett all but predicted the shift during our Year End Digital Review and Mixer in December: he noted that EQAL’s existing business model—creating shows and then getting big brand sponsors (like Neutrogena for lonelygirl15) to pay up—wasn’t scalable or viable for the long term. Co-founder and COO Greg Goodfried told NewTeeVee that advertisers wanted to sponsor properties that already had large audiences—not new series that weren’t guaranteed to succeed.

Find out about the projects EQAL will be developing for other brands after the jump.