North America’s Major League Soccer has sold KickTV, its global media platform with a core presence on YouTube, to London-based digital media company Copa90.
Under the terms of the deal, MLS will retain an ownership stake in the newly created company and will work strategically with Copa90.
Copa90 is a dedicated global football platform approaching one million subscribers on video-sharing platform YouTube, and is expanding across new video and social platforms including Vessel and Viber.
The new Copa90 management team will continue to run the operations of KickTV from New York, with the platform set to continue to cover MLS, properties from the U.S. Soccer national governing body and global football content. KickTV launched in March 2012 as one of the first premium channels on YouTube.
Tom Thirlwall, chief executive of Copa90, said: “We are welcoming an industry leader and creating the largest premium football fan network. This acquisition rapidly escalates our plan and gives us an entrance to the North American market with a brilliant team and operation ready to go in New York. This is just the beginning of the expansion of Copa90 but this deal with MLS is a landmark.”
Gary Stevenson, president and managing director of MLS Business Ventures, added: “We have built a successful global soccer platform and we’re very proud of that. This is the next step in KickTV’s evolution. We are delighted to maintain an interest in the company and we will support its growth moving forward.”