Mediapro Reaches Two-Year Contract Extension Through '15 With Formula One

Multimedia group Mediapro President Jaume Roures on Thursday announced a "two-year contract extension with F1," according to Abraham Romero of AS. Now, "the only question is which Mediapro channel will broadcast F1 throughout Spain." Roures said, "Formula 1 makes sense with or without Fernando Alonso. Logically, with Alonso, the audience increases. We say that F1 by itself is already a great show. It also has a different 'prime time.' You reach massive audiences at uncommon hours and this has a lot of value for the channels" (AS, 10/3). MARCA reported "this news had been anticipated for months." The current contract "was set to expire at the end of the year." The "agreement's financial terms have not been released." In '13, Mediapro paid €45M ($61.4M) for the rights to broadcast F1. Mediapro "tried to negotiate a lower price because of Spain's economic crisis in terms of advertising investment in media" (MARCA, 10/3).