Broadband Interactive Group is near the end.
The Irvine-based action sports media company, which owns Bluetorch TV, an extreme sports show that airs on Fox Sports Net, recently laid off all but a handful of its staff and retained Chicago-based Development Specialists, a reorganization and bankruptcy management consulting company, to liquidate its assets.
“It’s a legal assignment in the state of California for the benefit of creditors,” said Brent Clark, a consultant with Development Specialists. “All creditors for the company go into a pool. When all assets have been sold and the money collected, (we’ll) distribute the money to the creditors.”
Fox Sports Net, which had a five-year contract with Bluetorch that expires in 2004, will be in line.
The company is Bluetorch’s largest creditor and is owed a “mid-six-figure number,” according to Lou D’Ermilio, a Fox spokesman.
Broadband Interactive’s assets include its furniture, fixtures, equipment, a video library for the Bluetorch TV show, which runs five days a week on Fox Sports Net, and its Bluetorch brand name, according to Clark.
“We hope to do this fairly quickly, in the next month or so,” he said.
Clark added that there are unnamed “prospects” interested in buying Broadband Interactive, but declined to go into any more detail.
Bluetorch TV’s future with Fox Sports Net is unclear for now.
The network is currently running Bluetorch re-runs. Under its contract, Bluetorch was obligated to supply Fox with 585 original episodes. But Fox will only end up with 165 original episodes, he said. The 30-minute show airs five days a week in a late-afternoon time slot.
“It’s a good performing show for us in that time period, so it’s unfortunate,” D’Ermilio said.
Bluetorch’s lawyer, Peter Gilhuly, said any potential Bluetorch buyer could negotiate with Fox, but the network doesn’t have to negotiate with them.
Broadband Interactive was one of the last extreme sports media-types still standing in Orange County (San Juan Capistrano-based Swell.com, a surfing portal with e-commerce aspects is still alive).
The company outlived one of its biggest competitors: HardCloud.com, which closed its offices in San Clemente and San Francisco last year.
But Broadband Interactive struggled for firm footing.
The company was formed in 1999 with multi-million dollar investments from the founders of Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp., Henry Nicholas and Henry Samueli, and Gotcha International. It had lofty ambitions: action sports publications, an online property and a TV program.
One year later, Broadband Interactive discontinued its magazines division and closed its Bluetorch.com unit, laying off 65 employees. About 66 remained on the TV side, which eventually dwindled down. It’s unclear how many people were left when the decision was made to liquidate the firm.
Broadband Interactive had also shuffled management, bringing on a new chief executive officer, Andrew Coulson, in March to help develop “the firm’s strategic direction,” according to a company press release.
Coulson could not be reached for comment. n
