MADRID: Spain’s media group Mediapro, best known for owning television rights to the Italian and Spanish football leagues, is in talks with Orient Hontai Capital to sell the Chinese investment firm a controlling share, a company source said Tuesday.
The talks are ongoing but no deal has yet been finalised, said the Mediapro source, who refused to be named.
Any such agreement will give the Chinese firm control over lucrative international television distribution rights for Spain’s La Liga, as well as the Italian league’s domestic TV rights.
Mediapro also has the rights for the Champions League in Spain.
The group is also a producer of films such as Midnight in Paris and other Woody Allen movies, and television series including The Young Pope starring Jude Law.
The deal, if reached, would give Orient Hontai Capital control of Imagina, a holding company that includes both Mediapro and Globomedia, another movie and TV series producer, the source confirmed.
According to Spanish media, under negotiation is the sale of 53 percent of Imagina for some 900 million euros ($1.1 million). -- AFP