Talpa completes SBS takeover

John De Mol’s Talpa Holding has completed its deal to acquire Dutch commercial broadcaster SBS for €237m (US$273m) from Finland’s Sanoma.

John de Mol

The takeover, announced earlier this year, has seen Talpa increase its stake in SBS by 67% to give it 100% ownership of the company.

De Mol and Finnish media company Sanoma bought the broadcaster from Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 for €1.23bn in 2011, with Talpa Holding taking a 33% stake.

Peter de Mönnink will continue his current combined roles as CEO of both SBS and Sanoma until at least the end of the year to oversee the transition of the company from Sanoma to Talpa.

Talpa Holding is the holding company for De Mol’s media activities. The company was founded in 2005 and owns Talpa Radio, the largest music entertainment company in the Netherlands, consisting of the channels 538, Radio 10, Sky Radio and Radio Veronica.

The Voice producer Talpa Media, formerly part of Talpa Holding, was acquired by UK commercial broadcaster ITV in 2015. It continues to be responsible for the management of the company and the creation and production of television formats and concepts.

Karin de Groot, channel manager of SBS6, was handed the reins to the full portfolio of SBS channels, which also include Net5, Veronica and SBS9, towards the end of last month.

The exec will work with SBS director of content Remco van Leen in the role, which was most recently held by Peter Lubbers.