Spanish broadcaster Prisa and Spanish telecom Telefónica have "definitively agreed" to the sale of Prisa's 56% stake in pay-TV platform Canal+’s holding company to Telefónica for €750M ($1B), according to DIGITAL TV EUROPE. The agreement follows Prisa's "acceptance in principal of Telefónica's offer to buy the majority stake in the platform on May 7." The deal will give Telefónica, which already holds a 22% share in the holding company, DTS, a "controlling stake of 78%, leaving Italy’s Mediaset with 22% through its Spanish subsidiary." Later this week the Canal+ board will "communicate the terms of the deal to Mediaset España, giving the latter a 15-day period to decide to exercise a right to sell its stake." Mediaset España has "yet to make any statement about the deal." Analysts have argued that the development will "make Mediaset's plans to create a new TV company incorporating its Italian and Spanish pay-TV interests less interesting to investors." The sale "has yet to be authorized" by Spanish markets regulator CNMV. Telefónica CEO César Alierta said that the deal would be "important for the development of Spanish-language pay-TV" and that it was "a significant step forward in the process of transforming the company into a leading digital telco." Canal+, formerly known as Digital+, has 1.66 million subscribers and last year posted revenues of €1.166B with EBITDA of €28M (DIGITAL TV EUROPE, 6/3).
