Spain’s Prisa Targets Digital Transformation

Juan Luis Cebrián, CEO and President of leading Spanish media group Prisa, used his general shareholder meeting on Friday June 24 to paint a bleak picture of the Spanish economy. “All indicators confirm that the worst predictions have come to pass: the crisis is systemic, it will be long, and the solutions will be painful. Governments have decided to pay more attention to controlling the deficit than the implementation of fiscal stimulus that might boost the economy and create jobs.”

Nevertheless, Cebrián said that major restructuring of the company’s TV business (which includes PayTV platform Digital+) had helped Prisa weather the storm in 2010: “PRISA reported turnover of €2,823m last year, with EBITDA of €596m and an operating income before interest and taxes of €336m, improving last year’s margins. This illustrates the strength of our businesses, which are capable of generating high margins even in the midst of the crisis affecting the Spanish economy.”

Part of Prisa’s strategy is overseas expansion, he said: “28% of turnover came from outside Spain, and more than half of that from Brazil and Portugal. There was a sharp increase Latin American revenue (up 14.7%).”

Cebrián also stressed the importance of digital: “We have invested emphatically in digital transformation. Autonomy and IBM are working with us in building a platform that allows us to share media content, advertising and customers across all operations. We have signed a contract with Cisco for the development of Digital+ decoders, and with Nagravision for the expansion of Pay-TV operations via internet networks.