Telefonica is talks with Spanish media group Prisa to acquire its satellite pay-TV platform Digital+ for around EUR 900 million. Prisa, which owns 56 per cent of Digital+, has hired HSBC to attempt to find a buyer for the stake, the Financial Times reports, citing people familiar with the process.
Telefonica already owns a 22 percent stake in Digital+, and is now interested in acquiring Prisa’s stake in an effort to offer triple and quad-play bundles of internet, fixed line, mobile and pay-TV to its customers. Digital+ holds some of the rights to broadcast Spanish football league matches.
According to the same sources, Telefonica is unwilling to pay more than USD 900 million for the stake, while Prisa was stressing to its lending banks that it would not sell the stake unless a satisfactory price was reached. As a result of the impasse, Prisa’s advisers recently made overtures to other media groups that had previously expressed some interest in the asset.
Representatives from News Corp and BSkyB have reportedly held informal discussions with Prisa earlier this year over the Spanish media group’s pay-TV unit. However these discussions are no longer active, according to people close to the situation.
