WarnerMedia announced this Friday that it has ran an agreement to acquire the minority stake that Ole Communications owns in HBO Ole Partners, a joint venture between WarnerMedia and Ole Communications. When the transaction is completed, WarnerMedia will owe all HBO, MAXM Cinemax and HBO GO services in Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
HBO Brazil Partners shareholding structure, another joint venture between the same companies, which operates HBO in Brazil, will not be affected by the transaction. The agreement will be implemented once the corresponding regulatory approvals are made. Once they are completed, HBO Ole Partners will become part of Gerhard Zeiler, Chief Revenue Officer at WarnerMedia and President at WarnerMedia International Networks.
‘We are excited to be HBO Ole Partners owners, which operates one of the region’s leading networks in the premium pay TV industry. This acquisition will allow us to bring localized versions of our next streaming service for the US, HBO Max, for Spanish-speaking consumers in Latin America and the Caribbean’, said Zelier. ‘We have the option of acquiring the Brazilian business, but we are not interested in the idea of making new direct investments in Brazil at the moment, due to the regulatory uncertainty prevailing in that country. We remain optimistic and support efforts to make changes in the SeAC Law, to ensure that the media industry has a clear and predictable regulatory framework, which stimulates investments and innovation’, the executive added.
From Ole Communications they have also expressed themselves on the agreement through Enrique Cusco, its President and CEO. ‘WarnerMedia has been a great partner in Latin America, and we are proud to have built HBO channels together in the region,” he said. “We are happy to continue with the distribution operation of our excellent portfolio of basic channels, which includes Warner Channel and the A + E Networks Latin America, NBCUniversal International Networks Spanish Latin America, and Sony Pictures Entertainment channels’, he added.
WarnerMedia and Ole Communications brought HBO programming to the region for the first time by founding the HBO Ole Partners joint venture in 1991, and launching, in the same year, a premium HBO channel in Spanish. In 1994 a service was launched in Portuguese for Brazil.