The spanish language TV consolidation to push lower prices

MADRID -- The bold merger of Antena 3 and more compact rival La Sexta, introduced Wednesday, won't decrease the new entity's appetite for product, Antena 3 Boss Silvio Gonzalez told experts Thursday. However, the offer produces an industrial TV duopoly in The country -- with Mediaset Espana and Antena 3-La Sexta going face to face -- using the muscle to ratchet lower product prices. "Antena 3 now is the owner of seven Television channels. Its settling energy is big,Inch stated one analyst. Around the upside, "We're not presuming any decrease in program costs. That might be carrying out suicide," Gonzalez stated. But Antena 3 "will exploit better the expense we've,Inch he added. An example: Gonzalez recommended La Sexta's Warner Bros. library product could now feed Antena 3's male-focusing on Nitro and youth-skewed Neox. "La Sexta provides extensive good foreign fiction," Gonzalez stated, stating "The Walking Dead." Antena 3 will "fortify" La Sexta 3, its foreign fiction funnel, which accesses a Warner Bros. output deal and movie packages from Disney, MGM, Fox and Vital. Restarted late 2010, Sexta 3's first-year 1.3% share of the market is "very effective," Gonzalez was adamant. But Antena 3 won't renew Sexta's Liga Saturday primetime soccer match privileges, which lapse June 2012 unless of course their Pounds 60 million-70 million ($78 million-$91 million) price drops substantially. Unveiling key merger particulars, Gonzalez stated Antena 3 pays $348 million for 100% of Sexta shares. Cost includes as much as $158 million of Sexta debt. $285 million in tax discount rates sweeten the offer. Publish-merger, DeAPlaneta will own 41.7% from the unified entity, RTL 19.2%, and Imagina, including Televisa, 13%. Antena 3-La Sexta has 25% audience share and 42% ad share of the market, just beneath Mediaset Espana's figures. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com