FOX Sports International & TRISA Form Joint Venture.

Fox Sports International (FSI) and TeleRed Imagen S.A. of Argentina (TRISA) have entered into an agreement to combine their Spanish-language sports television assets into a joint venture that will assume a leading position in both the U.S. and Latin America.

FSI is a sports production and programming company of Fox Entertainment Group. TRISA is a joint venture between Argentina’s biggest multimedia conglomerate, Grupo Clarín S.A., and leading sports programming producer Torneos y Competencias S.A.

The new venture will be comprised of FSI’s Fox Sports World Español and Fox Sports Latin America channels and TRISA’s TyC Sports network. The transaction is a straight combination of assets, and will permit the coordination of an integrated package of TV channels and regional sports programming to serve the Spanish-speaking audience. The new entity will result in significant economies of scale and related synergies, while also creating programming, marketing and distribution strengths of an unprecedented nature.

Fox Sports International will manage all North American operations of the new venture — primarily Fox Sports World Español — utilizing programming and other assets gained through the merger to help drive that network’s broadband penetration. Fox Sports World Español, which currently reaches 3.9 million U.S. homes, will obtain access to exclusive live Official League soccer matches from Argentina; Uruguayan soccer; and Argentine basketball, volleyball and handball, among other TRISA properties. Fox Sports International – through its Los Angeles-based parent Fox Cable Networks Group – will also supervise distribution of a separate TyC Sports-branded network to U.S.-based satellite and cable distributors, utilizing its own market resources, including a growing portfolio of sister networks and major affiliated operations.

FSI will also handle all pan-regional advertising sales for the venture. The three major Spanish-language sports networks involved reach more than 19 million television homes across South, Central and North America and the Caribbean.

Commented FSI President Bob Thompson: “We are enthusiastic about entering into a partnership with as respected and powerful a sports programmer as TRISA. We look forward to working closely with TRISA to grow our mutual capabilities throughout the U.S. Latino and Spanish-speaking Latin American markets.”

Torneos y Competencias S.A. President Carlos Avila said: “An agreement with Fox Sports International will bring competitive advantages and opportunities for TyC Sports to go international, since it has already built a prestigious and recognized brand in the South American market”.

Grupo Clarín S.A. Corporate Director Ricardo Anglada added: “This venture opens the doors for the formation of a regional platform for Spanish-speaking sports programming that will reach all of the Americas, and makes it possible for us to meet the demands of an ever-growing market, spread over a large geographical area”.