Blackout Media Corp (BKMP)

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Fight Net founder departs
August 07, 2008

TORONTO – The Fight Network has undergone a number of changes behind the scenes this summer, including the departure of founder Mike Garrow, Cartt.ca has learned.

The channel terminated the employment of approximately 12 staffers two weeks ago – about a third of its workers – and this week, Garrow was let go, according to sources.

Garrow and some partners launched the channel in 2005 just as the whole mixed martial arts wave began to take off. The channel is widely carried in Canada by most distributors but has yet to reach 500,000 paid subscribers. CRTC figures show that the channel had 381,182 subscribers as of August 31, 2007 and lost $2.9 million in each of the 2006 and 2007 broadcast years.

The category two digi-net has ambitious plans, however, including carriage overseas and in the States, both of which are expensive efforts. It also already has content on various wireless platforms in Canada and beyond – and on radio.

Garrow remained on through the company’s recent refinancing and the hiring of a new executive team and was the public face of TFN in the industry and in the various fight games the channel worked with and aired. Garrow’s title changed often but he was something akin to chief strategy/marketing officer of the channel.

More to come on this story.

- Greg O’Brien