An interesting little battle is breaking out in UK: rival comedy broadband portals are about to be launched by BBC and Channel 4. The BBC looks set to upstage its commercial rival in March with the launch of “Soup” portal. Aspiring stand-ups will present their own audio and video sketches, to be rated by Internet users.

It will launch ahead of Channel 4’s planned 4Laughs broadband comedy channel, due in the second quarter of this year and providing a “virtual comedy festival”. Some more details on 4Laughs is here.