Brussels, 13/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission gave the go ahead to the acquisition of Endemol Entertaining Holding NV, Dutch producer off television programmes, by the Spanish telecommunications operator Telefonica also active as a broadcaster through its subsidiaries Antena 3 and Via Digital. The operation had been finalised at the beginning of July for EUR 4.79 billion. The markets for the products concerned by the operation are the independent production of television programmes, by Endemol, as well as free-to-air television and pay-television, favoured fields of Telefonica. The Spanish group is also active in the internal production of television programmes. However, in accordance with previous Commission decisions, the production of television programmes for their own use is a separate product market from independent production tailored for the merchant market. Therefore, there are no horizontal overlaps. By acquiring Endemol, Telefonica will increase, on the other hand, its vertical integration in the production of television programmes, especially in the Spanish market, were two of its companies are active. Nevertheless, given the relatively low market share of Endemol in Spain (23%) and taking into account that fact the independent production of television programmes is an open market, the operation should not present any problems for competition, felt the Commission.