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Mediaset S.p.A.
Type Public (BIT: MS)
Founded 1978 (as TeleMilano)
Headquarters Milan, Italy
Key people Giuliano Adreani (CEO), Fedele Confalonieri (Chairman of the board), Pier Silvio Berlusconi (vice-chairman)
Industry Media
Products Free-to-air and subscription television broadcasting, television production
Revenue €4.252 billion (2008)[1]
Operating income ▲ €984.6 million (2008)[1]
Profit ▲ €459.0 million (2008)[1]
Employees 6,380 (2008)[1]
Subsidiaries Gestevisión Telecinco (50.1%), Endemol (as part of consortium)
Website www.mediaset.it

Mediaset S.p.A. is an Italian-based media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. Founded in the 1970s by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and still controlled today with a 38.6% stake by his family holding company Fininvest, the group competes primarily against the public broadcaster and market leader RAI, and News Corporation's Sky Italia.

Mediaset's headquarters are in Milan, Lombardy. Many of its studios are located in the Milano 2 area of Segrate, a municipality bordering Milan, where broadcasts of local station TeleMilano (now airing nationally as Mediaset's Canale 5) began in 1978. After merging with various local broadcaster to form the Canale 5 syndication, much production was moved to Cologno Monzese, where the infrastructure of the former Telealtomilanese was present. The company currently has three main television production centres, in Segrate, Cologno Monzese and Rome.[2]

Due to their close proximity to Italy, Croatia, Malta, San Marino and Slovenia also receive Mediaset broadcasts.

In addition to its domestic television interests, Mediaset also operates a series of news, entertainment and sport websites; holds 50.1% of the Spanish broadcasting firm Gestevisión Telecinco; and heads a consortium which owns the television production house Endemol.

Contents

Holdings

Holdings in Spain are through Mediaset's 50.1% stake in Telecinco.

National channels

Mediaset controls five free-to-air terrestrial channels (three in Italy and two in Spain):

and

Digital terrestrial television channels

Italy

Spain

  • FDF Telecinco, devoted to TV series and films
  • La Siete, dedicated to sports and reality shows
  • Cincoshop, shopping channel
  • 40 Latino, music channel
  • Canal Club, shopping channel

Satellite platforms

  • Digital+ (Spain) (Telecinco holds 22%)

Satellite channels

Until 31 December 2005, there were four other encrypted satellite channels owned by Mediaset on SKY Italia: Duel TV, Happy Channel, IT Italia Teen Television, and MT Channel.

Endemol

A consortium headed by Mediaset, and also consisting of Goldman Sachs and John de Mol's Cyrte Group, acquired Dutch television production company Endemol in 2007.[3]

Europa 7 lawsuit

In January 2008, the European Court of Justice ruled that the TV frequencies used by Mediaset to broadcast Rete 4 were shared out unfairly. They should have been given to Europa 7, a competitor channel, the judges maintain, and Rete 4 should be broadcast via satellite instead. Although the Italian Council of State, the highest court on administrative matters, has confirmed that the Italian government should abide by this European ruling, Rete 4 continues its operation on analog frequencies and on DVB-T. [4]

Google lawsuit

In 30 July 2008, Mediaset filed a lawsuit against Google for €500 million (US$779 million dollars) with the charges of copyright infringement. The company stated that 325 hours worth of material was uploaded to YouTube and the result was the loss of 315,672 viewing days and ad revenue.[5][6]

SKY Italia lawsuit

In September 16, 2009, SKY Italia (fully owned by News Corporation) has filed a lawsuit to the Court of Milan, Italy, against Reti Televisive Italiane and Publitalia '80 (both owned by Mediaset) for an violation of Article 82 of European Treaty that rules free economic competition between companies, in particular for the refuse to allow SKY Italia to purchase advertising on the three main Mediaset television channels (Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4)[7], exercising the Article 700 of Italian Civil Procedural Code who permit to require an urgent action.[8] Mediaset has rejected the charge of antitrust violations, stating that in 2009 has broadcast SKY Italia commercials 3107 times on his channels, when SKY Italia has always refused to broadcast Mediaset commercials.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Annual Report 2008". Mediaset. http://www.mediaset.it/gruppomediaset/bin/59.$plit/Mediaset+Group+-+2008+Annual+Report.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-11.  
  2. ^ "Offices". Mediaset. http://www.mediaset.it/corporate/sedi_en.shtml. Retrieved 31 December 2009.  
  3. ^ "Endemol to apply for de-listing after consortium takes 99.54 pct of shares". AFX News (Forbes). August 6, 2007. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2007/08/06/afx3989002.html. Retrieved August 11, 2009.  
  4. ^ "Italy court rejects Mediaset appeal to EU ruling". Reuters. May 31, 2008. http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSL3142399220080531.  
  5. ^ "Mediaset Files EUR500 Million Suit Vs Google's YouTube". IDG (The New York Times). July 30, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C400693880002574960063ABD7.html.  
  6. ^ "Italian Media Company Sues YouTube". Dow Jones Newswires (CNNMoney.com). July 30, 2008. http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200807301025DOWJONESDJONLINE000654_FORTUNE5.htm. Retrieved September 13, 2008.  
  7. ^ "News Corporation’s Sky Italia Files Lawsuit Against Mediaset Companies For Antitrust Violations". News Corporation press release. September 16, 2009. http://www.newscorp.com/news/news_427.html. Retrieved September 16, 2009.  
  8. ^ "Sky porta Mediaset in tribunale" (in Italian). Il Sole 24 Ore. September 17, 2009. http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/SoleOnLine4/dossier/Tecnologia%20e%20Business/digitale-terrestre/copertura-broadcasting/Sky-Mediaset-tribunale.shtml?uuid=79bf94d0-a356-11de-9cb7-ea7a81dfc3bd&DocRulesView=Libero. Retrieved September 17, 2009.  
  9. ^ "Mediaset respinge accuse infondate del concorrente SKY". Mediaset Group press release. September 16, 2009. http://www.mediaset.it/corporate/salastampa/2009/comunicatostampa_5162_en.shtml. Retrieved September 16, 2009.  

External links

Companies portal
Italy Television in Italy
Terrestrial analogue†
Terrestrial digital (free)
Rai 4 • Rai Gulp • Rai Sport Più • RaiNews 24 • Rai Storia • Rai Scuola • Boing • Iris • K2 • Repubblica Radio TV • Second TV • Sportitalia • Sportitalia 2 • TV2000 • Class News • Coming Soon Television • Mediashopping • BBC World News • France 24 • Cielo
Terrestrial digital (pay)
Satellite television (free)
Satellite television (pay)
SKY Italia • Conto TV
IPTV (pay)
Media holding companies
†Channels available also on Digital terrestrial television.
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