MADRID – Telefonica signed an agreement to acquire 21 percent of pay television channel Digital+ from the Prisa media conglomerate, the telephone giant said Wednesday in a notification to Spanish securities regulators.

The 470 million euro ($708 million) deal implies a total value for Digital+ of 2.35 billion euros ($3.5 billion).

Because Prisa has an outstanding debt of 230 million euros ($350 million) to a Telefonica subsidiary, the acquiring firm will have to shell out only 240 million euros ($360 million) for the transaction.

Telefonica said in the regulatory filing that its stake will entitle it to two seats on Digital+’s board.

It was only last year that Telefonica sold its 16.79 percent share in Prisa subsidiary Sogecable, which controls Digital+, for 650 million euros ($980 million) as Prisa was trying to acquire the 49.93 percent of Sogecable shares then outstanding.

Shortly afterward, Telefonica and France’s Vivendi agreed to make a joint offer for Digital+, but the prospective partners fell out this year over their competing bids for Brazilian phone company GVT.

Though Vivendi ultimately prevailed in that struggle, the French company was forced to pay a lot more than it originally offered.

Both Telefonica and Prisa shares rose in Wednesday’s trading on the Madrid Stock Exchange. EFE