Iconic Labs PLC (LON:ICON) shares rose on Monday as the firm announced that the JOE and HER media group has entered into a strategic partnership with Premier Media Broadcasting Limited (Premier Sports), which will see the UK & Ireland sports broadcaster make an equity investment into the media group, with JOE and HER to provide digital content rights across multiple sports.
The main market–listed company pointed out that is a landmark agreement between a digital publisher and a broadcaster to share rights and formats across both entities’ audiences.
The multidivisional new media and technology business noted that the JOE and HER media group is managed by the company, Greencastle Acquisition Limited and Premier Sports.
READ: Iconic Labs jumps as it unveils new contracts for JOE Media business
Premier Sports has a successful pay-TV channel with over 600,000 subscribers together with free-to-air channels that broadcast into over 18mln homes across the UK & Ireland. JOE and HER are high profile digital publishers in the UK & Ireland with inclusive male and female brands that achieve over 100mln views a week.
This strategic partnership means that JOE and HER will become the exclusive UK and Irish digital home of the sports media rights in Premier Sports portfolio, which includes Tier 1 football and rugby properties such as Italy Serie A football league and the Pro 14 rugby union competition. The strategic partnership also provides for operational efficiencies through sharing assets including studio space and other production resources.
Iconic Labs said it intends to co-produce sports shows for use by JOE and HER together with Premier Sport in a pioneering approach whereby the shows will be simulcast to both digital and broadcast audiences.
It noted that the new partnership with Premier Sports follows on from Greencastle Capital’s acquisition of the Lovin Media Group last month and has the effect that on a combined basis Iconic Labs now manages and controls Ireland’s largest independent digital media business.
In a statement, John Quinlan, CEO of Iconic Labs, said: “We are excited to announce this strategic partnership with Premier Sports. It is a big step for us in achieving our vision for Iconic and the JOE and HER media group in bridging the gap between digital publisher and broadcaster. In addition to immediate revenue opportunities for Iconic, the access this partnership provides to sports rights and new TV audiences gives us a unique position and offering in the market and is a strong verification of the great work our teams have done to date.”
Mickey O’Rourke of Premier Sports added: “We are delighted to formalise this partnership with JOE and HER. They have a vast digital footprint across the UK & Ireland with inclusive male and female audiences and an extensive knowledge of how these audiences consume content online. We have long been admirers of their original content including their sports, lifestyle and entertainment programming and are looking forward to working with their team to reach a new demographic.”
In early morning trading, shares in Iconic Labs were 12.5% higher at 0.0135p.
Management contract changes
In a separate statement, Iconic Labs also announced that it has agreed with Greencastle Acquisition Limited – which is the holding company of the JOE and HER Media and Lovin Media businesses – to change the basis on which the management services that are currently provided in respect of the JOE and HER and Lovin’ Media businesses are provided going forwards.
The group noted that the original management services contracts (MSCs) were intended to be separate contracts and with a monthly fee of GBP100,000 for managing the JOE and HER Media businesses and a monthly fee of GBP10,000 for managing the Lovin’ Media business.
However, as these businesses are now being run together, Greencastle Capital has agreed to consolidate the management services that are currently being provided by the company under separate MSCs into one combined single MSC for all of these management services. Consequently, the existing individual MSCs have been terminated and a new single combined MSC has been entered into.
In addition, Greencastle Capital has agreed to increase the aggregate management fee to GBP125,000 per month, with all other terms remaining the same and, as part of the negotiations, and also to reflect the previously announced strategic partnership between Greencastle Capital and Premier Media Broadcasting Limited, the right to convert the GBP1mln term loan previously entered into between the company and Greencastle MM LLP – of which Greencastle Capital is the 98% member – into equity in Greencastle MM has been removed.
Otherwise, the key provisions of the term loan remain the same which includes Greencastle MM having the right to pre-pay the outstanding balance of the term loan in whole or in part at any time and otherwise the full amount of any outstanding amounts being payable at the end of its two-year term, commencing from the date the loan was initially drawn down.
— Adds share price, management contact changes news —
