It’s official. SiTV Media, Inc., parent company of NUVOtv, has reached a deal to acquire the Fuse music TVnetwork from The Madison Square Garden Company.
Under the terms of the transaction, MSG will receive $226 million, a 15% equity of the combined company, and a seat on the SiTV Media Board of Directors. The deal is expected to be completed in MSG’s fiscal 2015 first quarter between July 1 and September 30.
In a written statement, NUVOtv CEO Michael Schwimmer said the acquisition brings his network “significant benefits,” as “It enhances our distribution relationships, dramatically expands our aggregate subscriber base, provides substantial economies of scale, affords unique opportunities for programming and cross-promotion and should be extremely appealing to the advertising community as we roll out our plans for both NUVOtv and Fuse.”
Fuse, which reaches 73 million Nielsen subscribers nationwide, and NUVOtv will continue to operate independently.
As part of the acquisition, NUVOtv plans to use Fuse’s current street front studio on Seventh Avenue – across from Madison Square Garden – to continue to create dynamic content.
Bloomberg reported back in March that NUVOtv execs were in talks to buy the music TV network. At the time, Sean “Diddy” Combs had also made a bid of about $200 million for Fuse TV.
Jennifer Lopez, who serves as NUVOtv’s Chief Creative Officer, is a minority shareholder of the network.