Last month, Cycling.tv made distribution deals with Blinkx and Joost; we’ll call that “good.” What’s “bad” is that Cycling.tv lost about $1 million last year, and the official site suffers from some technical problems. Now, after (presumably) weighing these matters, JumpTV has acquired the cycling property for $4.95 million.
The arrangement has at least one fan’s hopes up. “By joining . . . with a more experienced network, perhaps we’ll have the content we already love with a flawless system,” writes Podium Café’s “Chris.” He then continues, “I know very little about Jump, but you can attempt to learn more at their Wikipedia page, humorously labeled ‘blatant advertising.’ Anyway, they’re Canadian, so how bad can they be?”
Seems like sound reasoning. The main JumpTV site is running ads for Al Jazeera English, which is a little “interesting,” but I haven’t watched the channel, and therefore can’t really comment.
Back to business, then. G. Scott Paterson, JumpTV’s chairman and CEO, said in a press 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.”
The deal should formally close before the end of the month, but for whatever changes are to take place, no timeline was given. Hat tip to Mashable’s Kristen Nicole.
