Fox International Channels Acquires Spanish-Language Ad Network

LOS ANGELES, July 17: Just
weeks since acquiring the Spanish-language online ad network ClickDiario, Fox
International Channels has made another move in that space, taking control of
Directa Network.

Directa Network is billed
as the largest online advertising network specialized in Spanish- and
Portuguese-speaking audiences, with offices in Buenos Aires, Mexico, Guatemala,
Sao Paulo and Madrid.

Fox International Channels
takes control of Directa through its purchase of Digital Ventures, which also
operates InZearch, Afiliados Hispanos and Performa Network, from its founders,
Damian Voltes and Ariel Arrieta. Voltes and Arrieta have agreed to stay on
board, and will report to Hector Costa, Fox International Channels’ senior VP
of advertising sales, who will add to his mandate the role of managing director
of online ad networks.

The company will be part
of a new online unit, “.FOX” (pronounced “punto Fox”), alongside with other
online sales and publishing units recently acquired or launched by Fox,
including ClickDiario. DirectaClick will take advantage of Fox International
Channels’ extensive network of sales offices in Miami, Santiago, Bogota and
other markets. DirectaClick’s network will reach an estimated 40 million unique
users and serve more than 7 billion impressions per month.

Fox International
Channels’ integrated TV-and-online sales and publishing unit in Latin America
will be rebranded “Integra.FOX.” Operating a collection of 35 websites such as
mundofox.com, natgeo.tv, utilisima.com, canalfx.tv and others, Integra.FOX
reaches a combined 2 million unique views per month. Digital Ventures’ search
marketing arm, rebranded inZearch.FOX, will continue to provide search engine
marketing and search engine optimization services to advertisers and agencies.

Digital Venture’s
affiliate network will be rebranded as “Afiliados Hispanos.FOX” and
ClickDiario’s lead generation services will be rebranded as
“Coregistracion.Fox.” Performa.FOX will specialize in contextual and in-text
advertising, and will work with the Integra.FOX unit on developing solutions
for contextual video advertising.

Hernan Lopez, the
president and COO for the FOX International Channels (FIC) Group, said: “Online
ad spend in Latin America, Iberia, and the U.S. Hispanic market is estimated at
$800 million, only 2 percent of the total pie. As this market grows, Fox is now
very well positioned to capture a fair share in most segments—publishing,
ad networks, affiliate networks, lead generation, contextual ads, video ads,
and search engine marketing and optimization.”