WarnerMedia Finalizes Acquisition of HBO-Branded Services in LatAm

WarnerMedia has completed its acquisition of Ole Communications’ minority stakes in HBO Ole Partners and HBO Brasil Partners and now owns 100 percent of all HBO, Cinemax and HBO GO offerings in Spanish-speaking Latin America, the Caribbean and Brazil.

Per the transaction, WarnerMedia’s Latin American television services now include a mix of basic and premium brands that feature premiere franchises, award-winning original productions, animation, sports and global journalism. WarnerMedia and Ole Communications brought HBO programming services to LatAm for the first time in 1991 when they founded the HBO Ole Partners joint venture and launched a Spanish-language HBO-branded premium channel that same year. In 1994, a Portuguese-language service was launched in Brazil.

WarnerMedia and Ole Communications will continue their basic channel distribution business in Latin America.

Gerhard Zeiler, chief revenue officer at WarnerMedia and president of WarnerMedia International Networks, said: “We are pleased to complete this strategic acquisition, which will allow us to fully realize the potential of a combined WarnerMedia in Latin America, creating more value for fans, business partners and content creators. First and foremost, with this acquisition, we plan to launch localized versions of our upcoming U.S. streaming service HBO Max to consumers throughout the region.”

Enrique Cusco, president and CEO of Ole Communications, said: “Nearly thirty years ago, Ole partnered with HBO to build one of the leading pay-television platforms in Latin America. HBO was an ideal partner and I’m grateful to all the people that worked with us to create HBO Latin America. I’m also proud of the significant role Ole and everyone on the HBO Latin America management team played in what we achieved together. I wish WarnerMedia great success.”