Mogul Gonzalez buys 80% of Canal 9
Exec takes stake of Argentine broadcaster
Based in Miami, the low-profile exec paid $30 million in cash and assumed Canal 9's $40 million debt, much of it in default and owed to studios.
He bought the stake from Daniel Hadad, who retained 20% as well as editorial and news control, Canal 9 said.
Hadad, who owns a financial newspaper and five radio nets in Argentina, is developing F-5, a pay cabler with a regional reach.
Canal 9 will supply some content; Gonzalez will control the rest of the programming.
He has appointed Argentine vet TV exec Carlos Gaustein as chairman, flanked by Gonzalez, Hadad, Fernando Contreras and Guillermo Canedo.
Gonzalez also has TV assets in Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Peru.
He has a programming supply deal with stations in the Dominican Republic and is a top supplier to Mexican media conglom Televisa.
Gonzalez buys failing broadcasters and turns them around with low-cost programming -- mostly Latino telenovelas and U.S. films -- acquired in multiterritory deals.
With Canal 9, he aims to produce novelas for export to Latin America, taking advantage of the country's low costs and artistic and technical talent.
Producers make an episode a day of a telenovela, for example, rather than five to 10 days in other markets.
The country's fiction exports have surged since a 70% currency devaluation in 2002, with "Los Roldan," "Montecristo" and "Resistire" getting remade in Asia, Europe and the U.S.
A journalist and lawyer, Hadad entered Canal 9 in 2002, relying on low-budget magazine and news programs to compete with longtime ratings leaders Telefe and Canal 13.
