Manuel Polanco to Replace Rodolfo Martin Villa at Prisa Group (original) (raw)
MADRID — Spanish media empire Prisa Group appointed Manuel Polanco president of its film and TV branch Sogecable, replacing Rodolfo Martin Villa and taking the first step in a broad restructuring of the holding.
With degrees in finance and business management, Polanco is a career Prisa man, who was named corporate general manager in January 2009.
Juan Luis Cebrian continues as CEO and executive president of the board at Sogecable, which is to be renamed Prisa TV, according to a statement released Thursday.
The restructuring will see Sogecable, which presently owns Spain’s main digital pay-platform Digital Plus and free-to-air broadcaster Cuatro, soon include Portuguese channel TV1, audiovisual production house Plural — with offices in Miami, Rio de Janiero, Madrid and Lisbon — and New York-based TV channel Vme.
“The audiovisual holding is the main source of revenue for Prisa Group and should become the motor of strategic growth for the company,” the company said in a statement. “A series of operations have begun that will lead to a broad expansion of the group in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking territories.”
Other new additions to the board include Pierre Lescure, CEO of Canal Plus France for more than 10 years and Vice President of Canal Plus Spain from 1989 until 2002; Markus Tellenbach, president and CEO of TVN Group and Fernando Martinez, secretary general of Prisa Group with experience in Sogecable directing the Managemetn, Planning and Finance Departments from 1998 until 2009.
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