RTVE and Telefonica in multimedia deal
February 19, 2008
From David Del Valle in Madrid
The Spanish state-owned group, RTVE -that operates the terrestrial TVE 1 and La 2- and the incumbent telco Telefonica have signed a 3-year strategic agreement to promote and develop joint multimedia projects through all existing distribution platforms.
The agreement, signed by the presidents of the companies, Luis Fernández and Cesar Alierta, respectively, is aimed at launching new joint TV services based on the digital, interactivity of content. Both parties will develop interactive content, including interactive TV advertising, and launch a joint offer of International TV channels to be distributed through all kind of distribution platforms, among them, mobile TV and DTT.
It is an exclusive agreement since both parties have undertaken not to sign a similar deal with other companies in Spain that directly compete with RTVE and Telefonica. Cesar Alierta, president of Telefonica, said that “for Telefonica this agreement represents a great opportunity to develop its huge expertise in audiovisual services”. He added that “we are proud to meet RTVE’s innovation strategy with the launch of new audiovisual services, based on digitalisation and interactivity”.
“Telefonica is helping us in this new phase of the RTVE Corporation with the development of new services and new resources”, commented Luis Fernandez. “We are going to offer Spanish content to develop new opportunities and take advantage of new technology and emerging platforms”, he concluded.