BUENOS AIRES and LOS ANGELES – Fox Sports International (FSI) and TeleRed Imagen S.A. of Argentina (TRISA) have entered into an agreement to combine their Spanish-language sports television assets into a joint venture that will assume a leading position in both the U.S. and Latin America.
FSI is a sports production and programming company of Fox Entertainment Group. TRISA is a joint venture between Argentina’s biggest multimedia conglomerate, Grupo Clarín S.A., and leading sports programming producer Torneos y Competencias S.A.
The new venture will be comprised of FSI’s Fox Sports World Español and Fox Sports Latin America channels and TRISA’s TyC Sports network. The transaction is a straight combination of assets, and will permit the coordination of an integrated package of TV channels and regional sports programming to serve the Spanish-speaking audience. The new entity will result in significant economies of scale and related synergies, while also creating programming, marketing and distribution strengths of an unprecedented nature.
Subject to the satisfactory completion of due diligence and regulatory reviews, the new Buenos Aires-based entity will be jointly managed by the partners. TRISA will assume day-to-day operating management of the TyC Sports and Fox Sports-branded networks in Latin America. These include Fox Sports Latin America properties that currently reach more than 9.8 million households across 18 nations, with the heaviest concentration in Argentina, Chile and Mexico. TRISA will utilize its domestic relationships in Argentina, the popularity of its 6.7 million-subscriber TyC Sports channel and other market resources to continue to increase penetration of the TyC and Fox-branded networks across Latin America, and will run the local advertising sales. Fox will also benefit from the strong distribution and operational capabilities of TRISA in South America, which will allow it to enhance its presence throughout the region.
The TyC Sports network will likewise benefit from new access to FSI sports programming and production capabilities, ranging from Argentine, Chilean, Mexican and English Premier League soccer to NFL, Major League Baseball, PGA Tour golf, ATP Tour tennis, and the twice-nightly ‘Fox Sports Noticias’ news program. The venture will not operate in Brazil, where FSI will participate in a joint venture with ESPN International and Globosat, announced in October 2000, to operate the ESPN-Fox Sports network.
Fox Sports International will manage all North American operations of the new venture — primarily Fox Sports World Español — utilizing programming and other assets gained through the merger to help drive that network’s broadband penetration. Fox Sports World Español, which currently reaches 3.9 million U.S. homes, will obtain access to exclusive live Official League soccer matches from Argentina; Uruguayan soccer; and Argentine basketball, volleyball and handball, among other TRISA properties. Fox Sports International – through its Los Angeles-based parent Fox Cable Networks Group – will also supervise distribution of a separate TyC Sports-branded network to U.S.-based satellite and cable distributors, utilizing its own market resources, including a growing portfolio of sister networks and major affiliated operations.
FSI will also handle all pan-regional advertising sales for the venture. The three major Spanish-language sports networks involved reach more than 19 million television homes across South, Central and North America and the Caribbean.
Commented FSI President Bob Thompson: ‘We are enthusiastic about entering into a partnership with as respected and powerful a sports programmer as TRISA. We look forward to working closely with TRISA to grow our mutual capabilities throughout the U.S. Latino and Spanish-speaking Latin American markets.’
Torneos y Competencias S.A. President Carlos Avila said: ‘An agreement with Fox Sports International will bring competitive advantages and opportunities for TyC Sports to go international, since it has already built a prestigious and recognized brand in the South American market’.
Grupo Clarín S.A. Corporate Director Ricardo Anglada added: ‘This venture opens the doors for the formation of a regional platform for Spanish-speaking sports programming that will reach all of the Americas, and makes it possible for us to meet the demands of an ever-growing market, spread over a large geographical area’.
Based in Los Angeles, Fox Sports International is an international sports programming and production entity housed within the Fox Cable Networks Group, one of the major operating units within the Fox Entertainment Group (NYSE: FOX) and News Corporation (NYSE: NWS). In addition to the networks being contributed to the venture with TRISA, FSI operates the programming services Fox Sports World, Fox Sports Middle East, Fox Sports Israel and Fox Sports Eastern Europe, as well as a London-based programming syndication sales division.
Founded in Buenos Aires in 1991, TeleRed Imagen is a company dedicated to the production and transmission of sports events on television. Among other achievements, it developed the first Argentine satellite channel dedicated exclusively to sports, TyC Sports. From its inception, the network has held first place in regional sports channel rankings, and its programming is recognized for its quality, innovation and prestige.
TRISA’s shareholders are Torneos y Competencias S.A. (50%), a company dedicated to the production of audiovisual content, with a special emphasis on sports, and the co-owner of important sports rights in Argentina and in the region, such as the Copa Libertadores, Copa Mercosur and FIFA World Cup qualifying matches; and Grupo Clarín S.A. (50%), the number one media group in Argentina, with holdings in graphic media, free TV, satellite and cable TV, radio, audiovisual production, telecommunications and the Internet.
Media Contacts:
Grupo Clarín S.A.
Martín Etchevers (54-11) 4309-7572 martine@clarin.com
Torneos y Competencias S.A.
Veronica Artica (54-11) 4349-4836 vartica@tyc.com.ar
Fox Sports International (LA)
Tom Tyrer 1 (310) 966-6333 ttyrer@foxcable.com