Mediapro: We’ll be out of insolvency in three months

Mediaproducción, one of several companies owned by Mediapro parent company Imagina, Spain’s largest production company, filed for voluntary insolvency last month in the latest move in what insiders describe as a “game of chess” with arch-rival Prisa, owner of pay-television operator Sogecable.

Speaking to TV Sports Markets, Mediapro partner Gerard Romy said that the company had told Mediaproducción’s creditors that it would pay all its debts in full, plus interest, within three years.

Mediapro’s problems mounted last week when a deal with the MP & Silva agency for the Spanish rights for Italian football’s Serie A was terminated after Mediapro failed to pay the first instalment. The collapse of the Serie A deal was the result of “unfortunate timing” as opposed to a sign of wider financial problems at the company, Romy said. It was the only deal to have been affected by the insolvency.

Mediaproducción’s insolvency, Romy said, did not affect any of Mediapro’s other related companies, including football channel Gol TV and Gamp, which holds a majority share in Spanish commercial broadcaster La Sexta. Mediapro had extended its deal with top La Liga club Barcelona at the same time as insolvency proceedings were going through.

Romy said that after making a big loss on its Spanish football rights last season, the agency expected to make a small loss this season and then “make big money” in 2011-12.

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