The competition was first used last summer and quickly became a favourite with the users and pulled in over 80 competitors during a 24-week period. It's popularity peaked towards March time when rival site Vital was struggling for hits and ran a similar competition, prompting JVComps to copyright the format of the competition.
Big Rich is said to be “uncontrollable with delight” at the news and will now enter talks with officials at JVComps, who also own rights to the popular ‘Songs with ….. in the title' message board threads, about this year's competition and with Millersmad believed to have paid a ‘substantial fee' for the rights, Rich will be hoping to get his money's worth.
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The success of the last season's competition, which was won by controversial hate figure Gino, exceeded most people's expectation and undoubtedly increased the bounty of its rights. A spokesman from JVComps today said: “We were delighted at the success of last year's competition and as a result we had many offers to go elsewhere. However, Millersmad has been a great home for the competition with a much higher user loyalty level than other sites and we always felt if they could match the price we would like the Caption Competition to stay there. Luckily they did and we have made the right deal at the right time for us.”
This deal will serve as a huge blow to rival sites, especially Vital who have allegedly been losing more hits than Rotherham United have been players and fans and will have seen a potential defect as a way back in to climb up the ratings ladder. A source from Vital said “It's a big blow”. Details of next season's competition are expected to be announced in the next seven days.
Keep logging in to Millersmad, the home of the 2006-07 Caption Competition.