Coincidence or competition? One-time couple Jennifer Lopez and Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs have both recently been involved in struggles to obtain the rights to cable music channel Fuse TV. Now it appears as if J. Lo's NuvoTV has beaten out Combs' Revolt TV in a bidding war to acquire the network.
Billboard reports that NuvoTV (where Lopez is a part owner and the chief creative officer) has reached an agreement with Fuse parent company the Madison Square Garden Company, offering "cash and equity valued at more than $200 million" for the struggling channel. Revolt had previously made a similar offer, so the article speculates that Lopez and Co. may have "sweetened their deal" in some way.
Acquiring Fuse, which reaches approximately 74 million cable households, would be a huge move for either Nuvo or Revolt, as both networks currently reach in the neighborhood of 34 million households on their own. Though there have been rumors of both companies converting Fuse to their respective programming formats, Lopez's manager, Benny Medina, said in response to Nuvo's acquisition of Fuse, “We do look at these channels as two different companies with two different identities, audiences and goals, and these shall remain intact.”
Medina was also asked if she thought the bidding war had anything to do with Lopez and Combs' past relationship, which ended in 2001, to which she responded, “I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”She added, “In many ways, Jennifer and Sean are cut from the same cloth. They’re both passionate artists of the same generation who think on a grand and global scale. They were two superstars seeking to build their brand, who happened to be Jennifer and Puffy.”
Stay tuned for more news of the future of Fuse TV.