TORONTO – Corus Entertainment is selling its pay audio service Max Trax to Stingray Digital Group Inc. for approximately $16 million dollars.
“To ensure our focus remains on driving our core business, we have made the strategic decision to discontinue the operation of Max Trax,” said Paul Robertson, president of Corus’ television division, in the press release. “Stingray Digital is a pioneer in the digital music service business and we are confident that they have the expertise to enhance the pay audio offering. We have agreed to provide services to Stingray in the short-term to ensure a smooth transition for listeners.”
Stingray secured a licence to operate a national pay audio programming undertaking from the CRTC last December. It already operates digital music service Galaxie, through an affiliate relations agency agreement with the CBC, and The Karaoke Channel on television and the Internet.
In addition to selling off Max Trax assets such as trademarks, websites, domain names, hardware and software licences, Corus will provide “short-term operational and consulting services” to Stingray. Corus said that they will pull out of the pay audio service business entirely once Stingray begins providing its own service to the BDUs, so that consumers will not experience a service interruption.
“This is a strategic agreement that will reinforce Stingray’s position as the premier provider of digital music services,” said Stingray president Eric Boyko, in the release. “This agreement will allow us to extend the breadth of our portfolio of products and services and continue to offer the highest quality and most diverse offering to our subscribers and our distribution partners.”
