After months of uncertainty following the forced resignation of former Telefonica chairman Juan Villalonga, a new blueprint unveiled this week for the future of subsidiary Telefonica Media (TM) confirms the conglomerate's intent to remain at the forefront of the international media business.

That said, however, TM executive president Juan Jose Nieto's proposed focus on growth and consolidation in Spanish-speaking markets diverges from Villalonga's more global ambitions. Telefonica chairman Cesar Alierta also announced that the conglom will postpone its planned flotation of TM, among other filials, due to the volatile stock market.

Nieto presented his plan to parent company Telefonica this week for the creation of a "new environment of convergence" for the powerful multimedia subsidiary. The TM chief simultaneously announced that he will step down from his parallel position as CEO of TM holding Antena 3 Television. In his place, former Terra Lycos e-commerce director Luis Velo will take over the helm of the free-to-air network.

According to Nieto's blueprint, TM will be restructured into three prime business areas:

  • Contents: Endemol Entertainment, which was bought out by Telefonica last March, will take centre stage as the "neuralgic content centre" for TM, co-ordinating contents to exploit all of Telefonica's various distribution platforms (TV, internet, mobile phones, radio, etc). Former Endemol chairman John de Mol will helm the division, set to encompass Spain's leading film producer Lolafilms.
  • Free-to-air TV: TM aims to take the successful model by which Nieto transformed Antena 3 into a profit-bearing network and replicate it in the company's Latin American holdings. TM's biggest TV interests in Latin American are Argentina's Telefe and Azul TV.
  • Pay TV: TM plans to reinforce digital satellite platform Via Digital with the incorporation of a TV production and content brokering firm. TM already owns 25% of Barcelona-based producer/broker Media Park. Via CEO Juan Ruiz de Gauna will head up the new pay-TV division.