Spain tightens TV ownership regs
Telefonica may sell stake in Antena 3
It will also maintain a prohibition on companies owning stakes in more than one nationwide TV station.
In practice, the rulings, announced Monday by the Spanish Minister of Science and Technology Josep Pique, will force Telefonica to sell its controlling stake in free-to-air broadcaster Antena 3 if it wants to push through the merger of its satcaster Via Digital with rival pay TV operator Sogecable.
The new rules will also oblige Prisa, the managing shareholder of Sogecable, to divest joint ownership of 65 local TV operators grouped under the Localia banner. Localia repped a small but attractive growth business for Prisa.
A last-minute addition to Spain's budgetary legislation for 2003, the rulings are sure to cause uproar in Spain, and further charges of a "Berlusconization" of the Spanish media.
The Partido Popular's rulings may well increase the number of companies with significant TV assets in Spain. But the companies likely to benefit from the regs will be close to the government or at least far removed from Spain's socialist opposition.
Pundits predict that Telefonica will push through the Via-Sogecable merger. It has the whole of next year to divest its 16% stake in either Sogecable or Antena 3.
Most observers think the latter more likely. Antena 3 is losing money for Telefonica and the telco's grip on the channel has weakened since journalist Ernesto Saenz de Buruaga, a close confidant of Prime Minister Aznar, became its managing director last year.
Per buzz, several Spanish companies are already prepping bids for Telefonica's 47% stake in Antena 3. These include the Planeta Group and an emerging consortium reportedly linking minority Antena 3 shareholder RTL with Florentino Perez, prexy of Real Madrid soccer club.
