Jennifer Lopez’s backing not enough to save Fuse from bankruptcy

Fuse Media, the Latino-focused TV and digital company backed by Jennifer Lopez, filed for bankruptcy late Monday to cut its debt by $200 million.

The pre-negotiated plan filed in Delaware court also calls for Fuse, which lost millions of subscribers after being dropped by Comcast and Verizon in December, to emerge from Chapter 11 later this quarter.

Fuse blamed a decline in pay-TV subscribers caused by “cord-cutting” and “cord-shaving” for its $242 million debt load. Assets, by contrast, were listed at $201.2 million, while revenue for the most recent fiscal year was $114.7 million.

The filing marked a reversal of fortune from when SiTV, the parent company of J.Lo’s NuvoTV, acquired Fuse for $226 million in 2014.

Lopez, a shareholder and chief creative officer of Latino-oriented NuvoTV, prevailed over former boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs and his Revolt TV when her NuvoTV bought Fuse from Madison Square Garden.

In 2015, after NuvoTV folded itself into Fuse, the merged network broadened its focus to include lifestyle programming.

Fuse said at last month’s annual presentation to advertisers that the median age of its audience was a coveted segment — 15 years younger than cable’s average.

This wasn’t enough to satisfy key distributors like Comcast, which blasted the network for not having enough original content when it dropped it in December.

In the filing, Fuse attributed about 2 million preferred shares to J.Lo’s Nuyorican Productions and 5 million to MSG, which kept a 15% stake in Fuse on selling the remainder.

That has the shareholders behind a lengthy list of creditors, including Comcast, Disney, MGM, Showtime and Universal, which Fuse owes $150,000 to $600,000 apiece.