When Jaume Roures and Gerard Romy founded Mediapro in 1994, it can be said that they invented a business from nothing: buy and sell sports rights. It was something that almost nobody did and that they had already proven that it could be very profitable in the then young Catalan television, TV3, where they met when they worked as journalists and producers. Soon, their former partner, Tatxo Benet, joined them as a partner in the new producer. Today, after having celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, and after multiple storms, Benet is the only one of the three who continues in the company, as president and CEO, and holder of 5% of the shares. The departures, first of Romy in 2018 after a case of pages undue to the FIFA, and then that of Roures in October 2023 for disagreements with the Chinese shareholders of orient Southwind Media Fund total 85.6% of the property, leaving the remaining 9.4% to the WPP advertising holding company – joined the hard blow of the pandemic that resulted in the bulky debt that forced the shareholding changes. After these years of turbulence, midf, already with the debt under control, it is straightening the course with two key guidelines: depending less on sports rights, especially LaLiga, and betting more for the Anglo -Saxon market. On the top of the Mediapro building on the Diagonal Avenue of Barcelona, Benet, 67, receives El País. Since he left the company, Benet and Roures have not resumed contact. «Of his departure, which is an issue that affects me personally, I prefer not to speak. These things happen in the world of the company, and with that I do not mean that they have to normalize, but tomorrow can happen to me,» he says. What is the mid -era after the era? «The same,» says Benet: «The three, Jaume, Gerard and I were completely united in the project. Now I stay, but people see that we continue dedicated to our trunk business, that the project has not changed.» The Midopro's maximum executive also rules out that the shareholding changes have an impact on the day to day of the company. «We have a Board of Directors and as in any company we work as agreed on what is the nationality of your shareholder, the papers are very well distributed. There is no big difference in how Midopro took 10 years ago and how it is carried now.»Tatxo Benet, president and CEO of Mediapro, at the Group offices in Madrid. Michael Oatsla debt management did had an impact on company management. The commitments exceeded 1,100 million after the pandemic, and in 2022 Orient Hontai extended capital to refinance it, in exchange for moving from 54% of the capital to 80% (now it has 85.6% after having bought the participation of Roures). Last November, Mediapro refinance the debt until 2029, placing it at 525 million, achieving a reduction of the interests paid every year. The 2024 accounts are still auditing, but the company plans to close the year with a turnover of 1,117 million euros, about 60 million less than the previous year, although with a positive Ebitda of 182 million, 27 million more than in 2023. That year was the recovery of the positive net result (12 million), a path that according to Benet will be repeated in the accounts of 2024. The strategy for the future for the future passes through the future. «This is in our DNA, we are a very large producer in Spain, Europe and almost in the world, and diversifying is what has made us grow exponentially.» However, at the time of the departure of Roures, the Fitch qualification agency warned of the excessive dependence of Mediapro in the international rights of the Spanish Professional Football League, and then calculated that 40% of the EBITDA came from these contracts. Something about which a solution is already being found: a year later, the same agency calculated that this weight in the Ebitda would fall by 2024 to 20%. This lesser contribution of LaLiga – the exploitation contract expires in the 2028/2029 season, and had to look income. Now, the company details, the rights represent 20%. The Broadcasting Media Services area, which functions as an audiovisual operator to provide retransmission, production and postproduction of events, has gained weight up to 45% of income. The area of channels and platforms, which manages more than 150 channels and platforms, contributes 20%, and The Mediapro Studio, dedicated to the creation, production and distribution of its own content, 15%.
An identity hall
There has also been a greater commitment to diversification, although international businesses have been a sign of identity of Mediapro since its foundation. According to the company, which works in 50 cities from 28 countries, 40% of production is already done from international headquarters. And there are two recent milestones that demonstrate the greatest interest in the English -speaking market: the rights area has opened an office in London this month, while Los Angeles studies and the next study in Yonkers strengthen their presence in the US. With about 7,200 employees, Mediapro has become a giant of the audiovisual industry. From the company they emphasize that it is difficult to compare it with another similar company, because it covers almost the entire value chain: it is the third sports rights marketing agency; As an operator he makes 25,000 productions a year that can cover a final of the Champions or the broadcast of the Congress; And as a producer, he has Woody Allen's films or other winners such as 47. “The success has been a non -reductionist conception of the audiovisual world, not to focus only on a small part,” explains Benet, which also reviews some of the storms and errors in the last 30 years, such as the management of the COVID crisis or the rights they bought from French football, which they had to give up. There were other errors, such as the failed public newspaper, or the aforementioned judicial case in the US in which Mediapro paid 24 million dollars after declaring himself guilty of bribes. Now, the challenge is to know how to compete in an increasingly ubiquitous audiovisual world, where the big platforms have more and more weight, but in which television, a great asset for Mediapro, resists: «We have to adapt to the demand, which now asks for more niche products. But years ago it was said that open television was going to disappear and that has been shown to be false,» he says.
