MUMBAI: JumpTV Inc. (www.jumptv.com), broadcaster of ethnic television over the Internet, has announced that the company has ended the year 2006 with 254 channel partnerships, is consummating the previously announced acquisition of Sports International Group and made several management appointments for 2007.
JumpTV announced the signing of exclusive agreements with 12 new television channels before year-end bringing the total number of channels under license at 31 December 2006 to 254.
The 12 new channels will be individually priced at US$9.95 per month when launched commercially, and some will become part of country/region-specific channel bundles at later dates. Banglavision will soon be included in JumpTV's newly-launched Bangla Package of channels, which currently includes top Bangladeshi channels; Channel i, NTV Bangla and RTV Bangla. The addition of the 5 Pakistani and 2 Nigerian channels brings JumpTV's Pakistani and Nigerian channel lineup to 9 channels and 3 channels respectively, and bundles will be launched for each of these countries soon, informs an official release.
JumpTV International president and chief executive officer Kaleil Isaza Tuzman stated, "JumpTV is laser-focused on successfully executing against our three-phased strategy which began with (a) channel acquisition, followed by (b) building the best user experience for live video on the web and will be completed by (c) our subscriber acquisition efforts.
The company's board of directors has also announced that Kaleil Isaza Tuzman has been appointed of as president and chief operating officer of JumpTV Inc. He will however, continue to serve as president and chief executive officer of JumpTV International, the company's wholly owned subsidiary.
Alex Blum, who had previously held the position of president and chief operating officer of JumpTV Inc., will continue with the Company through the end of January to help facilitate the transition after which time he will serve on JumpTV's Advisory Board and assume his new role as chief executive officer of a social networking and user generated content application service provider based in New York, adds the release.
In addition, several other management appointments have been made to the team. JumpTV chairman and chief executive officer G. Scott Paterson said, "We have built an incredibly strong team of executives with global reach and experience. When I became CEO in May 2005, we had only seven exclusive channel partnerships and no third-party marketing/distribution relationships. Under Kaleil Isaza Tuzman's leadership and tireless efforts, we have become the single largest carrier of ethnic television in the world with more than 250 exclusive channel agreements today, top-notch sports content and world-leading marketing/distribution partners. The board of directors and I are confident that in Kaleil's expanded role he will provide the day-to-day leadership for our Company to achieve our objectives for 2007 and beyond."
In addition, JumpTV has previously announced the acquisition of Sports International Group LLC (SIG), the owner of www.SportsYa.com. The company anticipates closing the transaction no later than 8 January 2007.
Former SIG CEO and majority shareholder Daniel Canel has become Chairman of JumpTV's Latin American business unit, and will contribute materially to the company's overall sports and corporate development initiatives.
Pursuant to the acquisition, the company has issued 521,345 of its Common Shares. Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for these shares to be admitted to AIM, such shares are expected to be admitted to AIM on 9 January 2007, adds the release.
