Spain's RTVE sells Via Digital stake

'Pepa and Pepe' go to Paramount Comedy

By EMILIANO DE PABLOS

MADRID -- Spanish pubcaster Radio Television Espanola (RTVE) has sold its 17% stake in Spanish digital satcaster Via Digital to Telefonica Media, a subsid of Via's controlling shareholder, Spanish telco Telefonica.

RTVE director general Pio Cabanillas said he did not think it appropriate for a state broadcaster to have a stake in a private-sector digital platform. RTVE should figure, he argued, as a digital content provider. Pursuing this role, RTVE has sold top sitcom "Pepa and Pepe" to the new Paramount Comedy Channel on Via rival CanalSatelite Digital (CSD).

Via profits

Cabanillas' major financial priority is to keep RTVE's debt at the year-end 1998 level of $4 billion. The Via stake sale price -- $88 million -- marks a tidy profit, 40% up on state broadcaster RTVE's original Via investment.

It also suggests that state-friendly Telefonica, now a 54% Via shareholder, is willing to flash its checkbook to aid Via, whose other main shareholders are Mexico's Televisa (17%), DirecTV (6.9%) and the Pearson-owned Spanish publisher Recoletos.