UGO acquisition grows IGN UK audience to 5m

IGN has confirmed its acquisition of Hearst’s UGO Entertainment.

And the move has big consequences for the IGN UK team, which can now claim to reach 5m in the UK.

UGO’s properties include a range of men’s lifestyle and gaming sites, such as 1up.

A statement from IGN says: "According to ComScore UK audited data for March 2011, the existing IGN Entertainment network attracts 3.13m unique users a month in the UK, with the soon-to-be combined UGO network reaching 2.32m UK uniques.ComScore reports a little over 10 per cent user duplication between both networks."

IGN also says its total global audience now grows to 70m.

Ian Chambers, International VP and Managing Director, IGN Entertainment, said: With IGN Entertainment’s UK reach and revenue continuing to grow, this is an exciting development that positions us at the heart of men’s entertainment media online, with new opportunities in gaming and men’s lifestyle complementing our existing market-leaders IGN and AskMen.Delivering a combined UK audience of almost 5.5m users aged 18 to 35 in March 2011, we look forward to welcoming the UGO sites into our extended portfolio.”
Roy Bahat, president of the entire IGN Entertainment business said in another press release that "This instantly catapults us to another level".

He said: "We look forward to providing an even richer service for users and advertisers. We are now actively considering a range of options to maximise IGN’s long-term value."

But does that value mean the IGN business will – as some reports earlier in the week suggested – be viable as a spin-off of media parent News Corp, rather than a division of the Murdoch empire? IGN didn’t say.