Sogecable

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Sogecable, S.A

Type	Public (BMAD: SGC)
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Madrid, Spain
Key people	Rodolfo Martín Villa (Chairman of the Board), Javier Díez de Polanco (CEO)
Industry	Media
Products	Television networks, TV and film production
Revenue	€1.519 billion (2005)
Employees	1,800
Parent	Prisa
Website	www.sogecable.com

Sogecable (BMAD: SGC) is the leading pay TV company in Spain, created in 1989 and controlled (as of 2007) by Grupo Prisa. It was the first company to introduce interactive systems and specially Digital Television in Spain.

The company mainly manages and acquires audio-visual rights, but also distributes and produces channels. Another of its main activities is the production and distribution of cinematographic exhibitions.

Its restructuring process began in October, 2003, and finished in December, 2004, with the integration of Via Digital. They were trying this way to reorder Sogecable's activities absorbing the commitments with thematic channels, suppliers with audio-visual rights and other services. With this, restructuring the company contributed to the audio-visual recovery in Spain.

The producer of Sogecable is Sogecine. It is one of the principal distributors and producers in the Spanish territory, with special importance in the last years.

Sogecable's facilities are in Tres Cantos, in Madrid, producing every day 23 television channels, including nine versions of Canal+ and other 14 channels that are specialised in, sports, cinema, documentaries, children and music. These are watched and distributed across Digital+ (via satellite), cable and ADSL.

In 2005, the group offered a new free television channel, the fifth one in Spain. Its name is Cuatro and occupies the same frequency that Canal+ did up to then. Canal+ then passed to form part only in Digital+ on 7 November, 2005.

In 2006 Prisa made a public acquisition bid on 20% of Sogecable's actions to increase its participation up to almost 50%. Prisa increased its stake above the 50% mark in late 2007, triggering a mandatory (by Spanish law) bid for the remainder of the shares.^[1] At the close of the offer period on 12 May 2008, Prisa announced that it held over 95% of Sogecable's share capital.^[2]

Sogecable is also the main shareholder in Audiovisual Sport (AVS), which owns the TV rights of most Spanish La Liga soccer games. AVS is the company responsible for the lack of Spanish Primera football internationally after a dispute between company Mediapro. Sogecable claims that it is owed €58 million and will not allow Real Madrid or Barcelona games from being played internationally until this debt is paid by Mediapro.