The Fall of an Era and the Rebirth of a Sector We’ve Seen Transform Before
When an industry changes hands, it rarely does so with noise. It moves quietly, through brief statements, sealed agreements, and a single date that marks a before and after.
October 21, 2025 was one of those days. Mediapro, long one of Spain’s audiovisual powerhouses, announced that its founder and executive chairman, Tatxo Benet, would step down. It wasn’t an isolated gesture. It was the public acknowledgment that a cycle had ended.
His successor, Sergio Oslé, does not come from the creative mythology that built the group, but from the corporate engineering of major platforms like Movistar+. It is a change in language, in priorities, in tempo. And at Gala Capital, we know how to read these shifts, we have lived them from inside the sector.
The fragility behind the giant
For years, Mediapro embodied expansion: sports rights, global services, dozens of international hubs. But recent figures revealed internal strain: recurring losses, declining revenues, and heavy debt. A €500 million refinancing extended repayments to 2029; a €620 million capital injection by Orient Hontai stabilized the structure; and the slim €12 million profit of 2023 highlighted a company entering structural fatigue.
What Mediapro needed was not another financial patch.
It needed a refoundation.
And that refoundation began with a symbolic gesture: the departure of its founding leadership and the arrival of a management team grounded in efficiency, technology, and global integration.
Patterns we know well
When Gala Capital invested in Secuoya, we did so convinced of a simple truth: the audiovisual industry is not static. It is a living system that transforms each time its centers of gravity shift.
We supported that transformation from within—professionalizing structures, expanding internationally, scaling services, redefining production models.
That is why the shift at Mediapro feels familiar. We recognize the signals:
- Maturity demands discipline. Companies that shaped the industry narrative for years eventually need more technical, less heroic leadership.
- Every restructuring creates opportunity. In audiovisual markets, our experience with Secuoya made this clear, transition moments often give rise to asset revaluations, strategic spin-offs, and technological breakthroughs.
- Corporate talent sets the tone for the next cycle. Oslé’s arrival marks a shift from founder-driven intuition to global, operational expertise. When leadership DNA changes, the purpose of the company changes with it.
These transitions tend to be fertile ground for intelligent capital.
The Spanish Audiovisual Industry faces another reinvention
Mediapro’s transition does not happen in isolation. The entire industry is entering a quieter phase of consolidation: streaming platforms redefining their catalogs, production companies integrating technical services, cross-border mergers gaining traction, and technology –AI, data analytics, automated workflows– moving from accessory to core infrastructure.
The global audiovisual market is on the move again and at Gala Capital, having navigated previous waves, we know that major cycles are often detectable in small signals: who steps in, who steps out, who refinances, who restructures, who invests in technology.
Mediapro is crafting a new narrative, and the draft is already visible.
What’s at stake?
For Mediapro: its industrial redemption.
For the Spanish sector: a rebalancing of tradition and efficiency.
For investors: the reopening of a market that had long been consolidating behind closed doors.
From our vantage point, the new chapter could unlock:
- attractive spin-offs from non-strategic units,
- new technological alliances, especially around AI, data intelligence, and automated production,
- supplier consolidation,
- and a return to profitability rooted in discipline rather than scale.
At Gala Capital, having accompanied Secuoya through a similar shift, we understand that transitional phases often shape the future more than periods of stability.
Benet’s departure and Oslé’s arrival do not close Mediapro’s story, they rewrite it.
Audiovisual companies do not disappear; they reinvent themselves, adapt, shed their old skin.
And this change of skin is only beginning.
At Gala Capital, as investors who know the sector from within, we will continue to monitor the signals; both the ones the market speaks aloud and the ones it whispers.
Because in the audiovisual world, as in many others, transformations rarely begin with noise.
They begin in silence.
Sources
- La Vanguardia– «Sergio Oslé relevará a Tatxo Benet como presidente de Mediapro»
- CincoDías / El País– «Tatxo Benet deja la presidencia de Mediapro tras un acuerdo con el accionista mayoritario»
- ElEconomista– «Mediapro refinancia 500 millones hasta 2029»
- ElEconomista– «Mediapro vuelve a beneficios tras entregar el control a Orient Hontai»
- Advanced Television– «Leadership shake-up at Mediapro»
- 2Playbook– «Mediapro amplía capital en 620 millones y reduce deuda»
- OKDiario– «Mediapro pierde 79 millones en 2024»
