Sony Pictures Acquires Rocketboom

Distribution rights to video blog (or vlog) Rocketboom have been acquired by Sony. The deal announced early yesterday will see Sony Pictures Television take on Rocketboom’s distribution and ad sales in return for a reported seven figure sum and a cut of revenues.

Rocketboom was launched four years ago in 2004 by Andrew Baron and within the first couple of months, boasted daily download figures of 25,000. Mid 2006 saw the departure of Amanda Congdon as host and the arrival of former MTV presenter Joanne Colan as anchor.

While no one has questioned Rocketboom’s success per se, there have been a few hiccups along the way. In 2006, Baron, who produces the show claimed 400,000 daily viewers, something BusinessWeek had no qualms airing its doubts about.

The deal with SPT will see Rocketboom will be integrated into Sony’s multi-platform video entertainment network and studio, Crackle. This includes putting the daily show on Crackle.com, presenting the show with a Crackle player on the Rocketboom site and distributing Rocketboom content to other Sony products (like the company’s Bravia TVs and the PS3 Network).

On his personal blog, Baron talks about the trials and tribulations of Rocketboom from day and one, details the advantages of such a deal with Sony and why the site chose Sony in the first place.

“We were compelled by Sony because they are a complete package. They have so much experience in all of these special areas. With regards to infrastructure and support, they are industry leaders in TV and Film, electronics, gaming, music, the list goes on all the way to the advertising infrastructure that is already well established. Instead of gaining capital to burn while continuing to build or seek an advertising solution, we now have one of the most prominent advertising solutions out there, along with increased distribution, a road map for expansion and a guarantee that I believe is an unprecedented deal for this space.”

Baron also said that the deal will allow the Rocketboom team to focus on developing content as opposed to worrying about ad revenue. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed (other than reports doing the rounds murmuring rumors of a seven figure sum) but you can bet that Andrew won’t be blogging about Rocketboom running low on funds for a while.