ARTICLE: Soap Central Acquired By India-Based Absolute Sports For $1.4 Million, Founder Dan Kroll to Exit

[Errol]

Soap Central, the long-running U.S.-based website that helped launch a new era of soap opera coverage and fan interactions in 1995, has been acquired by Absolute Sports, one of the world’s leading tech-led sports and gaming media companies. The India-based company is a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies.

The acquisition, valued at $1.4 million, was first announced in early June and includes the Soap Central brand and all related assets, including the domain SoapCentral.com. The deal closed in early July and comes after Absolute Sports acquired a 73.27% stake in U.S.-based Pro Football Network LLC (ProFootballNetwork.com) earlier this year.

“The entertainment publishing industry is more than twice the size of sports publishing and allows us a great canvas for expansion into multiple content categories,” said Ajay Pratap Singh, CEO of Absolute Sports, in a statement announcing the acquisition.

“Having tested our content publishing and hyper-growth playbook with the acquisition of Pro Football Network last year, we are confident of scaling Soap Central in a very short time,” Singh continued.

According to a review of the new Soap Central layout, which is not yet live and remains in active development, the website will expand its coverage beyond the four remaining U.S.-based daytime soaps by also including daily recaps, spoilers and more for British soaps “Coronation Street,” “EastEnders,” “Emmerdale” and “Hollyoaks,” along with coverage of mainstream fare such as “House of the Dragon,” “The Boys” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), among other broad appealing entertainment content.

At press time, it was unknown if the website would continue to house its popular actor, character and birthday databases, which have become some of its most important core assets. However, in reviewing the new site layout, the core assets appear to have been removed. Further, the new website now resembles that of its new sister site, Sportskeeda.com.

Founded as the AMC Pages before rebranding to Soap Opera Central and later settling on its current name, Soap Central, the acquisition by Absolute Sports will reportedly see the exit of Dan Kroll, the website’s founder.

Note: The post Soap Central Acquired By India-Based Absolute Sports For $1.4 Million, Founder Dan Kroll to Exit appeared first on the Soap Opera Network website.

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[Soapsuds]

Wow!  This is news to me. Dan hasn't mentioned this on his FB account.

I use to post on SOC and still have account. Well a no longer account since it's going away.

[soapfan770]

Wow, this is wild to read but also a major WTF too. 
 

I mean I like the idea of expanding SOC’s mission to include international soaps but to include MCU stuff…? Reminds me of SPW’s coverage of Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, and putting American Idol on the front cover during its final years. 
 

It would be extremely shameful if all those old recaps and databases are lost though.  I don’t know where they would end up at.

[Soapsuds]

I liked the posters at SOC when I first joined. A lot were at the GL Buzz board too.

But then Dan changed the SOC format and then some weird posters signed up and it wasn't the same.

[cassadine1991]

Somebody better save the recaps, character profiles and soap news articles

[Errol]

For those interested in seeing what the new Soap Central will look like, here is a preview link: 

https://www.soapcentral.com/general-hospital/news-general-hospital-star-tabyana-ali-opens-racism-social-media

As for the actor database, here is what it looks like now: https://www.soapcentral.com/theactors/

 

[cassadine1991]

What about the character profiles??

[Maxim]

Their current board is a horror show... I guess... It's the end. 

Absolutely I second this and I hope the waybackmachine keeps everything safe that was in the past! 

[Soapsuds]

It looks the same. I mean the message boards. I doesn't look like any of the original back in the day posters post on SOC anymore. Those were the good old days on SOC.

[dragonflies]

IMO the board has some of THE DUMBEST soap fans to ever exist. I've never seen anything like it. Plus the mods are so biased and all their "rules" were dumb AF. Sure I'm all for rules but stuff like "No using the word "HO" for a character and whatnot lol 

I hope it's the end of the boards TBH. They're useless and the format I despise so much. 

[Errol]

Only the GH section appears to have been fully integrated when it comes to the new layout.

[Maxim]

Absolutely!!! The mods are out of control biased. Many people have complained to me that they get banned on their second or third post. No opinion that is truly unpopular gets through and some of the mods are borderline crazy. I made just 1 post, not violating any rules, just info, and then woke up to my post completely doctored and changed - it was like someone had re-written it. I remember my style of phrasing, so there was NO WAY I will write it like that. After I asked the mod - what the hell is this, she just told me she thought that way it would be more suitable for the tone or something like that. I told her - Who are you to rephrase or change the order of my sentences. It was bizarre. Never ever commented past that 1 first post. LOL.

[Soapsuds]

Yes to both.

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The mods were very strict and that was a big turn off.

Edited August 1, 2024 by Soapsuds

[dragonflies]

@Errolare the SOC boards going bye bye? 

[Maxim]

Fingers crossed they are. I am lighting a candle.

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