Telefónica prepares to take an important step in the Spanish media landscape: will bid on an open television channel After the appointment of Javier de Paz as non -executive president of Movistar+, according to The economist.
The movement, which coincides with government plans to auction a new DTT license, as advanced The confidential In summer citing his own sources, he could materialize through an agreement with Spanish shareholders critical with his current president, Joseph Oughourlian.
This decision comes in A critical moment for the centenary telecus. Telefónica, who has reached a hundred years overcoming all kinds of transformations, is now at a strategic crossroads that will define his future.
The commitment to open TV is not just a tactical movement: it is part of a deeper reflection on its corporate identity.
The Teleco lives months of great changes, but remains trapped between two worlds that perfectly represent their existential dilemma:
- On the one hand, the traditional telecommunications business, where the margins narrow, the competition intensifies and the relevance decreases.
- On the other, the aspiration to transform into a technological company with the capacity to compete in lands of greater added value.
The open channel – positively under the name ‘La Seventima’, a continuation of the Plan in a hurry – would be A new chapter in this attempt at diversification.
The interesting thing here is how different needs converge In this initiative:
- For Telefónica, it is an opportunity to expand its presence beyond payment television, especially valuable to uncertainty about football rights that must be renewed in a couple of years.
- For certain shareholders in a hurry, it is an alternative to their disagreements with the current address.
- And for the government it offers the possibility of expanding the media spectrum with a new actor.
Telefónica’s business context Explain many of your current decisions. The paradox that Pallete left in his management is remarkable: he reduced the debt in half while the stock value collapsed 57%. The market message could not be clearer: financial sanitation is no longer enough, investors seek growth stories, not survival. And in that field, diversifying to an open channel can offer precisely the attractive narrative they need.
The Murtra-Gayo duo, Telefónica’s new guard, looks like a more prone tandem to explore this type of territories. The entrance of the Saudies and the State via Sepi facilitates to make riskier decisions than in the previous stage.
The DTT panorama that Telefónica would face is complex: it is a mature market in which Mediaset and Atresmedia capture almost 85% of advertising investment, about 1.7 billion euros a year.
This approach to the media is not exclusive to Telefónica or the Spanish market. AT&T opted to become a media company acquiring Warner (although it ended up selling it years later). Verizon bought Yahoo and Aol and then detach from both in half of what they cost him. Vertical integration between distribution and contents has proven to be a complicated path … but potentially profitable If you run precisely. And above all, seeing beyond direct return.
What distinguishes this case is its coordination with the regulatory agenda. The project to take a new TDT channel coincides with the Government Democracy Action Plan, which includes measures for media transparency and aid to the sector. This synchronization raises questions about the independence of the future channel, but also offers a framework for its viability in a highly competitive market.
For Telefónica, Beyond the potential economic return, an open channel represents a new dimension of influence. At a time when its traditional business is being questioned and when it seeks to position itself as more than a simple “tube” of data, the ability to generate and distribute your own content, and to gain influence, takes a strategic value that transcends quarterly balances.
The real challenge will not be to get the license – the wind blows in favor – but to convert this initiative into a coherent component of its digital transformation. Telefónica has demonstrated its ability to reinvent itself over a century. Now you must prove that you can do it once again in an environment that changes much faster than before.
This step It may seem a simple business diversification, but hides redefinition of one of the Spanish business giants and their relationship with political and media power.
The final spectator will barely intuit the background currents that will determine what he will see on his screen, but it is precisely these dynamics that will shape what we will consume in the coming years. And it will be the cotton test to check if giant born when the phone was a luxury can finally find your voice in the noisy digital ecosystem of the 21st century.
From WorldOfSoftware We have contacted Telefónica to contrast the information published by The economistbut the Teleco has declined to comment on.
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