Telefonica Acquires Spanish DTH Operator Canal Plus

Madrid, Spain, May 7, 2014- Spanish telecom conglomorate Telefonica has acquired Canal Plus, the biggest pay TV operator in Spain, for €725 million (US $1.0 billion).

Telefonica informed Madrid’s CNMV stock market regulator of the offer Tuesday. Prisa, the controlling shareholder of Canal Plus, notified the CNMV on Wednesday evening that it had accepted Telefonica’s US$1 billion bid. With the acquisition of a 56 per cent stake, Telefonica now becomes the major shareholder in the pay-TV group with a 78 per cent stake, with Mediaset holding the remainder 22 per cent.

Telefonica now becomes the pay-TV market leader in Spain with almost 2.3 million pay-TV subscribers,  ahead of Vodafone-ONO with 789,895 and Orange TV with 76,028.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

Vodafone has announced that it will appeal before the Spanish Competition body CNMC against the deal as it recently did against Telefonica’s campaign to migrate its ADSL clients free-of-charge to fibre optic, including TV packages. Vodafone has accused Telefonica of abuse of a dominant position.