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The rich will get richer, even while paying mucho dinero.
Univision Communications, the U.S.' dominant Hispanic broadcaster, will pay $1.1 billion cash and assume another $100 million in debt to acquire 13 TV stations owned by Barry Diller's USA Networks Inc.
Univision, which also gets a minority interest in four other stations, is thus expected to cement its already tight hold on the U.S. Spanishlanguage market. The Dec. 7 deal, which is expected to closed in mid-2001, makes much more difficult the challenge of Hispanic broadcasting rivals including the fledgling Azteca America.
Headquartered in Los Angeles and controlled by billionaire Jerry Perenchio, publicly held Univision operates from a Miami programming base. The company already operates 12 full-power and seven low-power O&Os stations plus 33 more affils.
Its network is available to 92% of U.S. Hispanic auds vs. roughly 85% for No. 2 Telemundo.
The USA purchase will create duopolies for Univision in seven markets - Los Angeles, New York,...