JumpTV buys sports network

A screenshot of JumpTV.com, taken on July 17, 2007. Online video service JumpTV Inc. said on Tuesday it would buy a U.S. college sports broadband network for $60.25 million to expand beyond its portfolio of ethnic channels.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online video service JumpTV Inc. said on Tuesday it would buy a U.S. college sports broadband network for $60.25 million to expand beyond its portfolio of ethnic channels.

JumpTV, which raised about $100 million in February with an eye on acquisitions, will buy the broadband network business division of XOS Technologies Inc. in a deal that also includes the payment of 3 million retention warrants to employees.

Toronto-based JumpTV offers online video channels from countries including Albania, Australia, Egypt and Hong Kong.

The unit of Sanford, Florida-based XOS, which developed and maintains official Web sites for collegiate and professional sports teams, streams over the Internet thousands of U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association football, basketball, volleyball, baseball and track & field games.

It has more than 150 official and exclusive relationships with U.S. colleges.

The unit generated about $2.45 million in revenue in the first five months of this year and logged an operating loss of $3.17 million in the same period.

The sale to JumpTV follows last month's acquisition by Yahoo Inc. of Rivals.com, a site for fans of college and high school teams, for an undisclosed price.

(Reporting by Kenneth Li)