Deals

One Media iP Group plc Acquisition of Men & Motors

Posted: 12th December 2012 09:45
One Media, the profitable Netlabel, consolidator and acquirer of music and video rights, announces the acquisition of Men & Motors in its entirety and the entire library of rights from Granada Television Productions Limited and ITV Digital Channels Limited.
 
The acquisition, which is being made for an undisclosed sum, includes the sale and assignment of all rights to the content and trademarks of Men & Motors to One Media of approximately 1,600 hours of programming and over 3,000 different episodes from a variety of popular shows from the Men & Motors catalogue of rights. The portfolio obtained by One Media includes the following:

  • Motor Mania presented by Richard Hammond
  • Car Crazy Rio featuring Jeremy Clarkson
  • Jordan's Fantasies
  • Caprice: Supermodel Special
  • 100 Most Popular Cars Ever, presented by John Inverdale
  • The Vinnie Jones Show
  • Stars in their Cars featuring Daley Thompson, Eamon Holmes and John McCririck
  
In addition to the above, the other shows in the library feature hundreds of hours of motoring special interest programs, including: Original Mini Racing, the History of the VW Beetle, Customizing Road Cars, Monster Truck Racing, Caterham Car Racing, Vintage Motor shows, Trucks & Truckers, Bikers and their Dream Machines, Mods on Scooters and many more.
 
The 3,000 episodes being acquired originally cost several million pounds to produce and were aired on the Men & Motors channels on Sky TV between 1996 and 2009. One Media will now look to derive value from the content by re-packaging it for sale across a variety of digital platforms including iTunes, Amazon, and YouTube.
 
Men & Motors was launched on 1 October 1996. It became the last remaining station operated by the former Granada Sky Broadcasting ("GSB") joint venture, set up by Granada Television (now part of ITV plc) and British Sky Broadcasting in 1996. The channel enjoyed a surge in popularity between 2002 and 2005 before being moved to Freeview and finally transmitting its last show on ITV4 in April 2010.
 
Michael Infante, CEO and Chairman of One Media said: "This acquisition adds greatly to the depth and breadth of video content on offer to our customers and marks a real milestone in the history of One Media. The shows from Men & Motors now have the opportunity for a new lease of life thanks to the growing consumption of digital media and the emergence of Smart TVs (Internet connected TV)."
 
"In addition, we see great opportunities in monetising the M&M brand through other avenues of licensing. The M&M brand lends itself to use for franchising deals in men's products from cosmetics to picture library usage. In addition we are in discussions regarding the content being re broadcast on traditional nostalgia TV channels."

Related articles