Hope for Spanish ad market


The Spanish TV market is expected to rebound from September, according to Morgan Stanley, a move that will benefit commercial broadcaster Antena 3.

The investment bank forecasts that the Spanish TV market presents a high recovery potential that should see advertising spend start to improve towards the end of the year. It expects Antena 3 to report a 0.2% increase in national advertising growth with a 5.5% increase next year. 
As a result, the investment bank has upgraded Antena 3 to overweight, suggesting that it was the most attractive Spanish broadcaster to own. However, it did warn that merger talks with La Sexta may be reopened, a move that would harm it financially.

“The major deterrent to investment in Antena 3 is that talks reopen on a potential merger with La Sexta, which is heavily loss-making. There is no evidence that talks could resume soon… however, M&A risk cannot be ruled out,” it noted.