Prisa scotches Mediaset rumours

Spanish media group Prisa has poured cold water on rumours that its Italian counterpart Mediaset is about to acquire its pay-TV unit Digital Plus.

Prisa CEO Juan Luis Cebrian said that his company had been having talks with Mediaset, but these were focused on exchanging points of view on the Spanish media market, not Digital Plus. Mediaset has a keen interest in the Spanish media sector as a backer of free-to-air broadcaster Telecinco.

Prisa reported results for the nine months to end-September on October 22. Digital Plus recorded an EBIDTA profit of €259m. Prisa said that cost-cutting measures had helped it reduce capital expenditure by 41.9% and overall operating expenses by 15%. The subscriber base at end-September was 1.9 million and monthly ARPU was €39.30. Overall revenues of €981.7m were down 14.4% year-on-year.

Advertisng revenues at Prisa’s free-to-air network Cuatro were down 24.2% year-on-year at €167.6m as its overall revenues declined 22.7%, taking the total to €182.9m.

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