Keystone Law Isle of Man has acted for world-leading motor-racing film publisher and distributor Duke Marketing on its sale to Motorsport Network, the world’s largest motorsport media group.
Led by corporate and commercial lawyer Stephen Rodd, Keystone provided Isle of Man legal advice in relation to the sale of Duke Marketing Limited’s multimedia archive to Motorsport Network LLC and the restructuring of Duke’s business and assets. Reflecting the broad and far-reaching interests of Motorsport Network and the Duke group, the complex deal included structuring the transaction to ensure that the respective rights of both parties were effectively protected and documented.
The agreement, which includes the Miami-based company acquiring an equity stake in Duke, will provide a significant enrichment of Motorsport Network’s TV assets, while adding marketing access to Motorsport Network’s 24 million Internet users to Duke’s existing customer base.
The Duke Video archive includes over 1,500 programmes and more than 2,500 hours of content featuring rally, sports cars and touring cars, as well as an unmatched pedigree in bike racing, with TT films dating back to 1948 and World Championship motorcycle sports from the 1980s at the heart of the collection. The company also has video distribution rights to most of the contemporary premium World Championship motorsports including F1, MotoGP and World Rally as well as other documentary programming.
Duke Video was founded in the Isle of Man and launched in 1981 by Peter Duke, son of six-time Isle of Man TT winner and six-time World Champion, Geoff Duke OBE.
Commenting on the agreement that will bring a great deal of further investment into the Isle of Man, Peter Duke, who takes up the CEO position of the newest partner in the Motorsport Network portfolio said,
“There is great strategic alignment between our content and Motorsport Network’s capacity to put our growing range of products in front of millions more fans.
“We’re also delighted as a company that Motorsport Network will give us a massive international marketing boost to expand the volume, range and breadth of content that we produce. We look forward to exciting opportunities to bring new products – including motorsport travel packages as well as collectable videos – to the market and dealing with new customers across the globe.”
Stephen added:
“Due to the fact that the Duke name is a key feature in the Isle of Man’s TT history, it was Keystone Law’s honour and pleasure to advise Duke Marketing on this transaction. Having worked closely with both parties throughout this complex transaction, we are confident that the strategic alliance between the Motorsport Network group and the Duke group of companies will be very successful and will enable both Duke products and the TT Races to be promoted to new motorsport fans across the world.”