Mediaset can now join single broadband network project in Italy
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Italian media group Mediaset could join the single broadband network that the government wants to create, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Saturday, adding that rules on telecoms ownership in Italy might have to be revised.
“Why not?” Conte said, when asked by a journalist if Mediaset, controlled by the family of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, could also take part in the broadband project.
The government has pushed Telecom Italia (TIM) and state lender CDP to create a single national ultrafast grid operator to help Italy close its digital divide with other European countries.
Speaking at an event organised by Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper, Conte said he hoped such a network could be completed within three to four years and that other companies would be welcome to take part.
“It will be an open and inclusive network,” he said. “You talked about Mediaset. I am talking about all the companies in the telecoms sector. We want them all to take part.”
Conte’s comments came just days after an EU court ruling in a legal tussle between Mediaset and French group Vivendi.
The European Union’s top court ruled on Thursday that an Italian law forcing French Vivendi to forfeit a stake in Milan-based TV group Mediaset violated the bloc’s rules, potentially allowing a shake-up of the country’s media industry.
The Court of Justice ruling strengthens Vivendi’s hand in a long-running dispute, helping it regain voting rights for its full 29% stake in Mediaset, which is 44% owned by the family of Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The ruling brought an immediate response from Mediaset which said it could now consider its own investments in the telecoms sector. Vivendi is the biggest shareholder in Telecom Italia.
Vivendi, led by French billionaire Vincent Bollore, has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Mediaset since it withdrew from a deal to buy the Italian group’s pay TV unit in 2016 and built up a stake which Mediaset considers hostile. The decision went Vivendi’s way and raised questions about an Italian law that is designed to prevent a concentration of power in the telecoms and media sectors.
Conte said the government would have to read the full ruling carefully, but added: “From what has already been announced (by the court) … it is reasonable to say it will force us to revise the rules regarding telecoms.”
In the wake of the Sept. 3 verdict, Mediaset announced that it might now consider investing in the telecoms sector.
