Portugal Telecom new Sport TV shareholder
August 5, 2016
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Just days after Vodafone Portugal announced it will take a stake in Sport TV, Portugal Telecom, through its pay-TV unit MEO, has revealed plans to become a shareholder of the Portuguese premium sports network.
According to Portugal Telecom, “an agreement of understanding has already been signed with the goal of joining the shareholding structure of Sport TV”. The operator added that the agreement is subject to auditing and due diligence on the part of Sport TV.
Although there is no mention of the percentage of capital, it is likely that the arrival of MEO will lead to a new equal division of shares among the partners, with each getting 25 per cent.
With the entry of Vodafone Portugal, the shareholding was distributed in equal amounts among the three partners, with telco NOS, TV sports rights owner Olivedesportos and Vodafone each having 33.33 per cent of Sport TV.
Back in 2012, there was an attempt to set up a tripartite shareholding structure in Sport TV, dividing up the capital between Olivedesportos, NOS and PT. However, the deal was rejected by the Autoridade da Concorrência, Portugal’s Competition Authority, which considered that it was “likely to create significant barriers to competition” in both the TV rights and conditional access channels markets.