Juan Luis Cebrián confirms the intention to sell Canal+

In relation to the dispute with Mediapro over the so-called televised 'football war', he stressed that currently "there is no conflict."

The same day that Telefónica presented its content production company, the president of the Prisa group, Juan Luis Cebrián, spoke this Monday at the New Communication Forum. During his talk he addressed the issue of negotiations with creditor banks for the refinancing of Prisa's debt and a possible sale of Canal+.

The former director of El País pointed out that his group is a listed company and has the obligation to first inform the CNMV of any operation, "but since 2005 Prisa's willingness to sell Digital+ has been known, and you don't have to do great investigative journalism to know that."

En relación con el contencioso con Mediapro por la denominada ‘guerra del fútbol” televisado, subrayó que actualmente “no hay conflicto”. “Hay unas sentencias que están en revisión para ser firmes, en las que en la primera instancia se acordó que nos tenían que pagar más de 100 millones de euros, y hay otra demanda en curso, pero en este momento hay una buena relación y no hay un conflicto específico”, aseguró.

Cebrián had words of praise for the Government of Mariano Rajoy because he considers that it is not having an interventionist policy in the media sector, unlike what, in his opinion, his predecessors José María Aznar and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero practiced.

“I think there has been progress on the part of the Rajoy Government,” he said. "Aznar and Zapatero actively intervened in the media to try to take over media channels or organizations; they gave media to their friends or those they liked, or took it away from those they disliked. There was a direct intervention of political power with both President Aznar and President Zapatero in the media, and that has not happened with President Rajoy, as it did not happen with Felipe González or Calvo Sotelo."

Regarding the crisis in the media and the layoffs in Prisa, he commented that "there are many journalists affected in the sector, and unfortunately we have had to make employment regulations like practically all the media in this country; some think one way and others another" (...) "In Spain they have already closed 200 newspapers, and if the companies suffer, their workers suffer."

Regarding his continuity at the head of Prisa, he recalled that last July he informed the shareholders' meeting that at the request of the Board of Directors he plans to extend his contract until December 2015, but that he would have no problem not continuing if the Board asked him to do so.