TORONTO – Internet broadcaster JumpTV announced today it will purchase Cycling TV Ltd., a specialized Internet ‘caster based in England, for a total of £2.44 million (approx US$4.95 million)
Cycling.tv currently holds the Internet broadcast rights to international cycling races including Vuelta a España (one of the three European "Grand Tour" races), Paris Roubaix, Tour de Suisse, Criterium Dauphine du Libere and the Amstel Gold Race. Like JumpTV, Cycling.tv has long-term exclusive Internet broadcast agreements with its rights owners, says the JumpTV press release announcing the sale today.
In 2007, Cycling.tv "broadcast all of the major cycling races worldwide live other than the Tour de France," reads the release. Cycling.tv viewers, however, had access to three minute highlights of each Tour de France day’s racing, on a video-on-demand basis, in addition to exclusive, behind-the-scenes reports and extra features which the company produced in association with Tour de France organizers, ASO.
Cycling.tv has an audience of Pro Cycling fans all over the world with its largest markets being North America and Western Europe. In June 2007, the company reported viewers in 139 countries and streamed more than 130 live racing days of cycling. It currently averages more than 12 live streamed race days per month. Cycling.tv currently has approximately 18,000 paying subscribers who pay, on average, an annual fee of approximately £19. On an average monthly basis over the past 12 months, Cycling.tv had approximately 130,000 unique visitors, over 200,000 live and video-on-demand stream views and approximately 10 million live and video-on-demand minutes viewed across the Cycling.tv platform and all other video distribution platforms.
Like JumpTV, which offers global sports and ethnic content from around the world, Cycling.tv has a targeted audience for advertisers and high engagement with average user viewing sessions of 43 minutes, says the release.
“This acquisition is in line with our pursuit of exclusive, hard-to-find and high-affinity Internet video content. Cycling is a global sport with a large and passionate international following. Moreover, we are confident that, as part of JumpTV, the world’s top cycling races will be able to afford their worldwide fans the best in an online experience," said JumpTV CEO Scott Paterson, in a release.
Cycling.tv will become part of the JumpTVSports division along with the to-be-acquired XOS Broadband Network, the acquisition of which is expected to close later this month. JumpTV’s Hispanic sports portal, www.SportsYa.com, and exclusive properties such as FIFA championship soccer tournaments in Canada, Euro2008 Qualifying matches, the Egyptian Football Federation and the Israeli Football League will also form part of JumpTVSports.
