Online TV service in the vicinity of U.S. investment firm bought Criterion Capital Partners

Criterion Capital Partners, the U.S. investment firm that snapped up Bebo for a knockdown price, is willing to do the same with online TV service Seesaw.

Seesaw-owner Arqiva, the broadcast company, is close to signing deal of an 11th-hour.

Arqiva said in late May that it jiggle, which employs 28 workers, close this week, performed after the failure of a buyer following a strategic review by Ingenious Media to find.

Criterion is Adam Levine, \ purchased in June last year for Bebo, the reported price of about $ 10 million (? 6.17m) as part of the investment company 's strategy to buy and turnaround companies with revenues between $ 3m and $ 30 million out. AOL had bought Bebo for only two years earlier for $ 850th

Michael Jackson, the former Channel 4 chief executive, runs the operation for Criterion Bebo.

"Arqiva is still in discussion with various parties about a possible sale of the seesaw," said a spokesman for Arqiva.

Seesaw was launched with the assets of ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide 's defunct video-on-demand venture Project Kangaroo, the Arqiva acquired for about ? 8m.

At its launch in February last year offered Seesaw 3000 hours free programs such as skins, the United Kingdom and Doc Martin. Three months later, he started with paid content, with 1,000 hours shows like South Park, Spooks, and fought with U.S. broadcasters such as MTV and NBC Universal.

But other Internet sites TV aggregators have struggled to compete with broadcasters \ own in-house on-demand services, and the rocker does not significantly below profit compared to competing offerings such as the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and Channel 4 ' s 4oD.

Joost, the web TV service from the Dutch technology company founded behind Skype, closed its UK service in 2009.

SeeSaw \ s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide's predecessor, Kangaroo, was originally designed as a way for the BBC \ designed "digital revenue from the corporation 's to generate content. IPlayer While programs are free, they are only for a limited window available after the broadcast.

The future looks Blinkbox following the Seesaw rivals Tesco 's decision to acquire a 80% stake in the company last month secured. Blinkbox offers a number of free and paid downloads of shows such as Shameless, Peep Show and Top Gear.

Tesco is one of Britain's largest retailer of DVDs and physical Blinkbox will complement its in-store offers, as the market grows for downloads.

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