ITVN Sold Off

[caaarlo]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070717/latu122.html?.v=68

ITVN has been sold to BroadShift, a "a Canadian aggregator and distributor of narrowcast Internet protocol television", for $11 million.

It's hard to see this as a positive development, particularly as Google doesn't turn up any useful information about BroadShift, apart from copies of the ITVN press release. They don't even appear to have a web site.

[simont]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070717/latu122.html?.v=68

ITVN has been sold to BroadShift, a "a Canadian aggregator and distributor of narrowcast Internet protocol television", for $11 million.

It's hard to see this as a positive development, particularly as Google doesn't turn up any useful information about BroadShift, apart from copies of the ITVN press release. They don't even appear to have a web site.

Should I be concerned about Sentanta Sports not being available?

simon t

[caaarlo]

Should I be concerned about Sentanta Sports not being available?

simon t

This news doesn't really change my feelings about the viability of ITVN or the continued availability of Setanta through the service. I wasn't very confident before, and this news doesn't really impact that one way or the other.

That said, I'm looking into alternative arrangements to get Setanta, and hoping for some positive news on the FSC/Setanta web streaming front.

[GutBomb]

I would be. they were bought by a company that supposedly provides 130 channels of iptv but doesn't have a website. I imagine they were purchased for their equipment and datacenter, not for their content. If it was their content, their valuable product is porn, a much bigger deal than the setanta sports component.

Beg your cable company to carry setanta, or get directv/dish network. There's always setanta broadband as well, so that might be worth a try.

Whatever you do, don't subscribe to itvn though, I predict their current form will be gone by the end of the month.

[kstuart]

Uh, the entire company has just been sold for half what the Beckhams paid for their new house ??

Or what Sunderland paid ManU for the contract of one not particularly well known player (Kieran Richardson) ?

Obviously, not much included...

[caaarlo]

I would be. they were bought by a company that supposedly provides 130 channels of iptv but doesn't have a website. I imagine they were purchased for their equipment and datacenter, not for their content. If it was their content, their valuable product is porn, a much bigger deal than the setanta sports component.

Beg your cable company to carry setanta, or get directv/dish network. There's always setanta broadband as well, so that might be worth a try.

Whatever you do, don't subscribe to itvn though, I predict their current form will be gone by the end of the month.

This is good advice. I didn't mean for my comments to be interpreted as optimism -- I just had very little optimism to begin with.

I've always wondered if ITVN's porn business was making deal money, but given the size of this deal, I doubted that, and BroadShift's regulatory filings say ITVN only had 5,000 subscribers total. I think your comments about this other company looking to pick up equipment on the cheap are on point, though there's a thread on the ITVN forums discussing BroadShift, who say they're looking to pick up subscribers as they currently only have 4,300.

That thread goes into more details from BroadShift's regulatory filings. The details are being interpreted with some optimism, but that seems misplaced. None of the details make things sound good -- including the fact that ITVN is in default on some of its debt, which could cause problems, and that BroadShift wants to retain ITVN's current management.

It sounds like the best-case scenario here is that the death of ITVN could get delayed a bit, since BroadShift has filed for an IPO and could (in theory, anyway) use that cash to sustain the losses for a little while longer. While BroadShift doesn't sound shifty or scammy, it doesn't really sound like they stand any more chance of making a success of this market than ITVN did.

So let your search for alternate Setanta sources begin...

[peridigm]

This is good advice. I didn't mean for my comments to be interpreted as optimism -- I just had very little optimism to begin with.

I've always wondered if ITVN's porn business was making deal money, but given the size of this deal, I doubted that, and BroadShift's regulatory filings say ITVN only had 5,000 subscribers total. I think your comments about this other company looking to pick up equipment on the cheap are on point, though there's a thread on the ITVN forums discussing BroadShift, who say they're looking to pick up subscribers as they currently only have 4,300.

That thread goes into more details from BroadShift's regulatory filings. The details are being interpreted with some optimism, but that seems misplaced. None of the details make things sound good -- including the fact that ITVN is in default on some of its debt, which could cause problems, and that BroadShift wants to retain ITVN's current management.

It sounds like the best-case scenario here is that the death of ITVN could get delayed a bit, since BroadShift has filed for an IPO and could (in theory, anyway) use that cash to sustain the losses for a little while longer. While BroadShift doesn't sound shifty or scammy, it doesn't really sound like they stand any more chance of making a success of this market than ITVN did.

So let your search for alternate Setanta sources begin...

ugh... just subscribed a few weeks ago to get ready for the EPL. Now what?

[idiparker]

Thanks for posting this. I'm was really torn between an ITVN solution (I have pretty high bandwidth) or just adding a Globecast reciever to my existing FTA KU satellite system (which will cost $140 up front and then the monthly fees). From the sounds of it, it looks like adding a second receiver to my existing dish might be the best option.