The return and recent IPO of JumpTV is going unchallenged by the pillars of the TV industry now that the Internet rebroadcaster has stepped back from the edge of the Copyright Act.

Following an Aug. 1 filing, the Toronto-based company plans to issue 12 million common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange and on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange, at a price of $5.50 per share (or £2.62) to raise $66 million, according to its initial prospectus.

JumpTV executives are in a legally required ‘quiet period’ following the filing, and turned down interview requests. But broadcasters and producers are raising no objections, unlike during the company’s tempestuous debut six years ago.

The outfit arrived in 2000 with a plan to retransmit network programming from ABC, NBC and the like, without their permission, over the Internet – claiming a loophole in Canada’s copyright laws. The plan caused a firestorm of controversy and protests from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters.

JumpTV dropped those plans in 2002. CEO Scott Paterson, the former head of Yorkton Securities, replaced Farrell Miller in 2005, and today the subscription-based service streams mostly third-language TV channels, with permission.

Its 190 channels include Al Jazeera, NTV Bangladesh and Rwanda TV. CAB has since dropped its objections. JumpTV does not carry any North American channels.

Because JumpTV cannot rely on the ‘distant signal retransmission blanket’ loophole, ‘it is limited in the services it can retransmit, namely foreign third-language services for which it has secured the necessary web rights,’ says Jay Thomson, assistant VP of broadband policy at Telus.

He does not see JumpTV as a threat to Telus TV, the CRTC-licensed service that delivers channels over the Internet to TV screens.

‘We don’t regard it as a competitor,’ he says. ‘The more and varied content and applications available on the Net, the better it is for broadband.’

Epitome Pictures exec producer Stephen Stohn concurs. ‘I don’t see any downsides to JumpTV. I’m very supportive of any service that is legally authorized by the producer or the person who controls the necessary rights to put their programming on the web. That is something we should encourage.’

Epitome’s Instant Star and Degrassi: The Next Generation stream, with permission, on sites controlled by CTV and U.S.-based The N.

‘The broadcasters can deal with any issues, including blocking out access to certain territories,’ Stohn notes.

Even Planetvu, another Internet rebroadcaster which has already soft-launched, doesn’t think its plans for a bigger public splash in about three weeks will be undercut by JumpTV.

‘We know JumpTV very well. We’re in the same Toronto office building and we have a very collaborative relationship with them,’ says president Stuart Ross.

‘We both share the focus of delivering international television signals, but their programming acquisition priorities have been in other markets, such as Latin America and eastern Europe,’ he notes, adding that Planetvu is looking to distribute the top Indian and Chinese TV channels.

Ross says Canadian broadcasters should view Internet rebroadcasters as a way to gain more access to international markets.

JumpTV says it currently has about 16,000 subscribers in more than 80 countries, with 53%, mostly immigrants, living in the U.S. and 22% in western Europe. About one-third of the money raised through its IPO will be used to acquire more subscribers.

Subscribers pay monthly fees as high as $24.95 for bundles of TV channels, and as low as 99 cents per channel. JumpTV is also considering an ad-supported model.

The company’s prospectus also notes it is looking to acquire the Internet rights to radio, sports, music, and other content, and is planning to introduce features including video-on-demand, pay-per-view and time-zone shifting.

www.jumptv.com

www.planetvu.com