End of an era at Mediapro with the replacement of Tatxo Benet

BarcelonaThe Chinese investment group Oriente Hontai has decided to mark a change of pace for the Catalan production company Mediapro. According to the The Confidential, the former president of Telefónica Spain, Sergio Oslé, will be the company's new executive president, replacing Tatxo Benet. This announcement is expected to be made this afternoon to the audiovisual giant's more than 6,800 employees. For much of its existence, the name Mediapro was inextricably linked to the names of Jaume Roures and Tatxo Benet. Roures was also dismissed from the group in October 2023, after agreeing to his separation, dissatisfied with the ownership's future plans. Now it is Benet who is leaving, without having seen his desire to remain at the top of the company fulfilled, albeit with a different management structure and a consensus CEO.

The transaction comes at a difficult time for the company, which saw how this year it lost one of its most valuable assets: the contract it had held for years with LaLiga as the competition's audiovisual producer. And this comes after an already tough 2024, in which revenue fell 11%, from €1.202 billion to €1.068 billion. The decline in EBITDA was even sharper, around 30%, to €111 million. The company has tried to reduce its reliance on a few contracts and has focused on growing its non-sports audiovisual business, opening production centers in the United States, but so far this hasn't allowed it to offset the loss of contracts. And the results for 2025 aren't particularly encouraging, as it will be the year most directly impacted by the loss of the Spanish league.

This thwarts three consecutive years of growth that, however, hadn't been able to offset the setback caused by the pandemic: in 2019, Mediapro reached €1.776 billion in revenue. This July, Moody's downgraded the company's financial rating from B2 to B3, considered "highly speculative" and high risk.

Interviewed by ARA in January, one of the questions Benet was whether, as he approaches seventy, he had any intention of folding. "No, there's no date. I don't look too far into the future. If you ask me now what I'm going to do in ten years, you'd put me in a difficult position; I haven't the slightest idea. Now, I have no plans at all to fold: it hasn't even crossed my mind. What we have to do is be prepared, because this company, which is a big company, is a big company."

Restructuring in sight

The Asian holding company, Oriente Hontai, acquired a 56% stake in the company in 2018, intending to take it public. The pandemic thwarted that plan, and the fund had to rescue the company in 2022 with an injection of more than 600 million euros. Benet had been with Mediapro since 1996 and had a contract until December 31 of this year, as the group's entry commitment included keeping the two long-standing partners at the helm of management for a time.

The change in management suggests that the new leadership will undertake a restructuring plan for its businesses. The possibility of entering the digital betting sector in depth was one of the tensions that led to Roures' departure, so it remains to be seen whether a reorientation of interests and/or a reduction in staff will be undertaken now.

Oslé's appointment is not the only one that has come to light. Carlos Núñez, who was CEO of Prisa Media, will now be proposed as CEO of Mediapro, according to this digital media outlet. The executive was dismissed this February by Prisa's president, Joseph Oughourlian, after he attempted to create an internal faction within the media group to promote a television channel with the approval of the Moncloa (Spanish government), even though the group's top executive did not consider it a financially sustainable operation. However, the executive will have to wait until March 2026 if he wants to join the Barcelona-based production company, since he has a non-compete clause that prevents him from working for a rival group for a year.