Telefonica which previously owned 22 % of Canal Plus Spain, has now added the 56% from Prisa, this 725 Million Euro
take deal makes Telefonica the largest player in the Spanish pay-tv market. The remainder 22% belongs to the
Italian Mediasat company , of course founded in the 1970s and still having a large holding by Silvio Berlusconi .
Telefonica
So the near 1.6 million CanalPlus Spanish customers will be added to Telefonicas audience, but this concentration
of the market may yet be subject to scrutiny by the competition.
Prisa at least has made a clean break, with the burden of the debt ridden Spanish broadcasters out of the way, they
recently sold off the Cuatro channel to Mediaset and were very keen to accept the Telefonica bid this week.
Telefonica own the Moviestar ” Tv Everywhere” , and are expanding rapidly with newly acquired rights to Formula One
racing and MotoGP racing amongst others.