Rainbow Media Sells its Sportskool and Lifeskool VOD Services

Cablevision's content subsidiary, Rainbow Media, has sold its original-content VOD services, Sportskool and Lifeskool:

• Sportskool, which offers instruction and coaching videos for a range of sports and other athletic activities, has been acquired by Washington, DC-based production, distribution and management company, Grace Creek Media. The latter has a strategic relationship in place with USA Today, and says that USA Today Live, the newspaper's production arm, will work with it to produce new Sportskool videos. According to the companies, their partnership will include video production, promotion and cross-platform packaging of Sportskool across print, television and the Web. In addition, they say, editorial services based on the experience of USA Today's sports reporting team will be part of USA Today Live-created Sportskool programming. "This new relationship with Sportskool is an exciting and important part of USA Today's ongoing mission to leverage the brand's sports heritage onto new platforms," Lauren Ashburn, managing editor of USA Today Live, said in a prepared statement. "This partnership expands on our robust relationship with Grace Creek Media, one of Washington's most innovative production companies."
• Lifeskool, which describes its mission as "helping individuals make the most of their lives with entertaining and exclusive content that inspires and informs," has been sold to media, entertainment and technology entrepreneurs, Joe Covey and Matthew Davidge, who plan to operate it under its previous brand name, Mag Rack Entertainment. According to Rainbow, Covey has operated and invested in venture-backed media, communications and technology companies for over a decade. He was previously president of onebox.com, which was acquired by J2 Global Communications, and an entrepreneur- in-residence at Manhattan-based VC fund, Milestone Venture Partners. Davidge, meanwhile, has worked in film and television for 10 years, Rainbow says, and has spent the past eight years as a management consultant on digital media strategy to such companies as MTV and Rainbow itself.