Spanish private television broadcaster Telecinco, which like most media groups is struggling with falling advertising revenues due to the economic slowdown, is studying a merger with another broadcaster.
Another Spanish television broadcaster, La Sexta, also said it was open to a tie-up due to the dire advertising market.
Earlier this year, the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero passed a law which eliminated a 5.0 percent limit on cross shareholdings at TV broadcasters in a move intended to ease sector mergers.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s holding company Fininvest holds a 50 percent stake in Telecinco, which started broadcasting in 1990 as one of the first three private television channels in Spain. Telecinco was the market leader in terms of audience share in Spain in 2008 for the fifth year in a row but its ratings have slipped this year due to the rise of younger channels and a recovery by state broadcaster TVE.