The transition of Sports Illustrated’s website from Arena Group to Minute Media hit a bumpy road Thursday.
Minute Media announced earlier this week that Authentic Brands Group (ABG), the company run by 5 Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava, was embroiled in a dispute with ABG over financial terms. Licensed SI editorial content from.
The site was shut down for a short period on Thursday.
A spokesperson for Arena Group said in a statement to the Post that the company met with Minute Media on Wednesday and that “Minute Media is a high-tech company and that it would only take an hour to take over the site.” “I gave advice,” he said. To ensure a successful transition, we provided them with 24 hours of his time. ”
But people familiar with Minute Media’s operations told the Post that the company wanted a significantly longer transition period between Arena Group and Minute so it could migrate SI sites to the latter platform. Ta.
Instead, there was no passing of the baton at all, and Arena Group shut down its website Thursday night, officials said.
Minute Media’s technical team was able to reboot the site relatively quickly and the site is up and running again.
A Minute Media spokesperson declined to comment to the Post.
AJ Perez of Front Office Sports Who first reported the SI migration confusion?, two sources told the media, “Arena tried (unsuccessfully) to take back the SI.com domain name as Minute Media was in the process of migrating the website to its own side on Thursday.” Alina wrote to X that she “asked for it.” This is because multiple SI socials take over his accounts. ”
Regarding these claims, an Arena spokesperson referred the Post to the company’s original statement.
ABG acquired Sports Illustrated from Meredith Co. for $110 million five years ago.
The company manages a variety of business activities for the SI brand, from resorts to the company’s annual Super Bowl party, while licensing out the editorial content of its iconic print magazine and website to third parties. .
The newspaper’s Josh Kosman reported that ABG revoked Arena Group’s license after the licensee refused to make quarterly payments of $3.75 million on a $15 million annual contract.
Founded in Israel in 2011, Minute Media’s U.S. sites include Players Tribune, founded by Derek Jeter, Fanside and Mental Floss.
Minute’s license for SI editorial content includes the print magazine and the annual issue of Swimsuit.
The contract with ABG is for 10 years, but Minute Media has an option to extend it to 30 years.
