Eagle Rock Takes i-concerts Stake

CANNES: Eagle Rock Entertainment, a producer and distributor of music programming, has picked up a 20-percent interest in the cross-platform music channel i-concerts.

The stake acquisition, from i-concerts owner Transmedia Communications, builds upon an existing agreement between Eagle Rock and the music platform, which has featured a range of content from the distributor, such as performances by Santana and Deep Purple. The i-concerts service will now have access to Eagle Rock’s entire visual digital-rights catalogue, including new releases and ongoing productions.

"Live Concerts are the healthiest segment of the music industry today,” said Terry Shand, the executive chairman of Eagle Rock. "Becoming shareholders in i-concerts allows us to marry our content with their digital distribution. It will enable us to work closely together to develop innovative new ways to reach consumers via all the different digital and TV media. The sky’s the limit to what we can do here!"

"This partnership with Eagle Rock is not only a fantastic commercial opportunity, but also a vote of confidence from one of the industry’s key players," added Natalia Tsarkova, the CEO of i-concerts. "It means that i-concert’s vision and commercial model are working and are in alignment with the needs of artists, producers and music fans." The i-concerts HDTV channel is now available to all IPTV and digital cable households in France. The VOD platform is carried in Italy, in markets across Eastern Europe and on broadband services in France, Belgium, Switzerland and South Korea.