Mediaset España and Antena 3 to control 15% of Spain’s advertising market

Iñaki Ferreras ©RapidTVNews | 16-04-2012


When Spanish Grupo Planeta’s Antena 3 finishes absorbing Mediapro’s national private channel laSexta in the coming months, it will control 15% of the country’s advertising market along with Telecinco’s Mediaset España.
Spain’s regional public channels see this market share as dangerous, and have told the Competition National Commission (CNC) that it will limit the country’s advertising market.
The sum of the trade turnover of Mediaset Spain and Antena 3 (which includes laSexta and others if the CNC approve the merger) will be equivalent to 85%-90% of the Spanish television advertising market. This means that both groups will add about 35% of the total investment of advertising media that’s recorded every year in Spain. In other words, 15% of the total volume of the advertising industry: a business turnover of something just under €2,000 million.

According to figures from Infoadex, the investment in advertising, both in media and the so-called unconventional volume reached a total of €12,061 million in 2011.

The Association for Spanish Advertisers has been opposed to the merger from the start believing it could lead to an alarming anti-competitive situation on the market, much more so after the demise of advertising on national public broadcaster TVE.
According to sources cited by the association of regional public channels FORTA, the regional television stations are neither anti nor pro-fusion. FORTA is concerned about the market power of broadcasting rights that the two groups will have, given their purchasing power.

A recent report by the National Competition Commission recognized the reasons for this concern, saying that the merger of Antena 3 and La Sexta could hurt smaller competitors. The merger could lead Mediaset and Antena 3 to a coordinated action in the market for television advertising "to the detriment of competition," noted CNC. The weight of the expanded group could likewise reinforce the bargaining power of Antena 3 in the acquisition of audiovisual content, making it more attractive, the Commission pointed out.

Industry sources have recalled that when, in October 2010, the CNC approved the merger of Telecinco and Cuatro, it established a series of mandatory conditions for all operators, related to the acquisition of rights and the market advertising. The sources suggest that such limitations would also be effective for the merger of Antena 3 and laSexta.