The president of Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN), Pierluigi Gazzolo, was to Bugle this afternoon in the offices that the u.s. company has in the neighborhood of Palermo, in the city of Buenos Aires, where it has its local affiliate. The executive, who after the purchase of Telefe in US$ 345 million, will have under his direction Telefe, said that did not sleep almost all night and today has an endless series of meetings.
-How it impacted the Government’s position on the decision to buy Telefe?
-we Had a meeting with (Mark) Peña and Miguel de Godoy last week, to talk about the plans of the government, to grow the foreign investment in the media. They made us feel very well. There was also another meeting the previous week, in Washington, with our people Government Relations, where they were Of Godoy and the minister of Communications Oscar Aguad. They spoke of the same thing. We feel very confident that this government is going to support foreign investment and, most important, that will support the growth of the media. Those two things are very important for all media companies. And for the support of them, we have also taken the decision to come here. To hear it from the mouth of the government that are banking on foreign investment and the business of the media, we have decided to enter.
-long Ago that a foreign company did not invest$ 345 million in the purchase of a local company. Why they made that decision?
-Latin america remains a very important market of growth for the broadcast tv and pay TV in the first place. In addition, we were looking for companies of high level quality production, that there is in Argentina and not in other countries. And in the third place, we feel that the argentine market starts to grow again. And we had to be here.
-In the contest by Telefe, beat them to Turner and the Cisneros group. How did they do it?
-no idea, I don’t have an answer to that, because they had not shared that information. I believe that we come with a proposal very aggressive. We met with the teams of Telephone and Telefe, I think that Phone he saw a value in the entry of Viacom, above the value of the purchase. Was a bargain very good with the computer and Telephone in addition to we connect very well with the team of Telefe.
-why you chose to buy Telefe?
-Viacom always stressed the importance of international growth. One of the ambitions largest that we have is to grow with scale, in all the world. In England buy Channel Five, which is the third TV channel is open; in India we have the half of the channel number one, in Colours; and in Latin america we were looking for a similar option, so that when opened the opportunity of Telefe, the take. We were looking for a company that not only has reach, but also a catalogue of important content, production. The founder of the company, Sumner Redstone, it always says content is the king. And we are big believers of that. What you can see on our brands Viacom in Latin america, with MTV, Nickelodeon, Commedy Center, we are owners of our own content. And we wanted that of Telefe, which has content very important, of good quality.
-do you Plan to export content from the Argentina?
Yes, both of Telefe, as well as other brands of Viacom, the plan is to export outside of Argentina. We have a very large footprint of distribution and we feel that we can add that value also to Telefe. We have a subsidiary in Argentina since 1995, with 200 employees. Now we are going to unify with Telefe, to grow and produce more. We are going to generate more jobs.
-How would the synergy with the local affiliate?
-The idea is to merge them, they turn into a unification to production, there is no intent to keep them separate. Telefe and Viacom are going to be a, we see that union and that is the most important part of all of this. We have to sit down and see how we can work with the two companies into one, but the most logical thing is to produce more and export more. See how it grows the library of Telefe, the Viacom and how to distribute it around the world. This is the first step.
-What is the global situation of Viacom, which separated from CBS and is now seeing how to join again?
-It has been published that both boards of directors of Viacom and CBS, Redstone, they are talking about reunited. It is something that makes sense, due to the consolidation of the market, we bought a canal in England, another in India, Telefe. Are all channels of broadcast TV companies and production of content, so it also makes sense that you are together Viacom and CBS. The content is the future, so we will be on all platforms, both in broadcast TV, pay TV, Video on demand, Internet closed and open… The possibilities for horizontal growth are many.
-do you Plan any presentation event of the purchase of Telefe?
-Nothing planned, yet. But we’re going to have to do it. Now we are focusing on socializing both companies, to speak with the division of Viacom in Argentina, Telefe and start socializarlo. Obviously we’re going to do a launch party, with stars, Susana (Giménez), red carpet. And obviously, you’re going to be you guest.
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