Mediaset

Mediaset S.p.A.
Società per azioni
Traded as BIT: MS
Industry Mass media
Founded 1978 (as TeleMilano)
Founder Silvio Berlusconi
Headquarters Milan, Italy
Key people
 Giuliano Adreani (CEO), Fedele Confalonieri (Chairman), Pier Silvio Berlusconi (Vice-Chairman)
Products Free-to-air and subscription television broadcasting, radio, television production
Revenue Decrease€3.720 billion (2012)[1]
Decrease€235.4 million (2012)[1]
Profit Decrease€287.1 million (2012)[1]
Number of employees
 Decrease6,158 (2012)[1]
Subsidiaries Mediaset España Comunicación (41.218%), Endemol (as part of a consortium)
Website www.mediaset.it

Mediaset S.p.A., known as Gruppo Mediaset in Italian, is an Italian-based mass media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. Founded in the 1970s by former 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, La7, and 21st Century Fox'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 proximity to (or encirclement by) Italy, Albania, Croatia, Switzerland, Malta, San Marino, the Vatican City 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 Mediaset España Comunicación; owns the film production company Medusa Film; and heads a consortium which owns the television production house Endemol.

Holdings

TV channels

Channel Country LCN on DVB-T Type Launched Description
Boing Italy 040 free-to-view November 20, 2004 teen/kids
Boing Spain free-to-view September 1, 2010 teen/kids
Canale 5 Italy 005 free-to-view September 30, 1980 generalist
Canale 5 HD Italy 505 free-to-view December 5, 2012 generalist
Cartoonito Italy 046 free-to-view August 22, 2011 babies/kids
Cuatro Spain free-to-view November 7, 2005 generalist
Cuatro HD Spain free-to-view April 26, 2012 generalist
Divinity Spain free-to-view April 1, 2011 female-oriented
Energy Spain free-to-view January 9, 2012 male-oriented
Factoría De Ficción Spain free-to-view February 18, 2008 series TV and movies
Iris Italy 022 free-to-view November 30, 2007 series TV and movies
Italia 1 Italy 006 free-to-view January 4, 1982 generalist
Italia 1 HD Italy 506 free-to-view August 28, 2012 generalist
Italia 2 Italy 035 free-to-view July 4, 2011 male-oriented
La 5 Italy 030 free-to-view May 12, 2010 female-oriented
La Nueve Spain free-to-view 31 December 2012 female-oriented
La Siete Spain free-to-view February 18, 2008 generalist
Mediaset Extra Italy 034 free-to-view November 26, 2010 best Mediaset's series TV and shows
Mediaset TGCOM 24 Italy 051 free-to-view November 11, 2011 all news
Novela Italy 027 free-to-view February 2, 2015 female-oriented
Rete 4 Italy 004 free-to-view January 3, 1982 generalist
Rete 4 HD Italy 504 free-to-view December 5, 2012 generalist
Telecinco Spain free-to-view April 3, 1990 generalist
Telecinco HD Spain free-to-view September 20, 2010 generalist
Top Crime Italy 039 free-to-view June 1, 2013 crime's series TV and movies
Mediaset Tower in Cologno Monzese (Milan)

Pay TV channels (Italy)

Pay TV movies in streaming (Italy)

Other foreign channels

Movies

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] On March 23, 2012, Endemol's debt was converted into shares by US private-equity firm Apollo Global Management.[4] On April 3, 2012, Mediaset sold its majority stake in Endemol to Apollo and Dutch asset manager Cyrte.

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.[5]

Google lawsuit

In 30 July 2008, Mediaset filed a lawsuit against Google for €500 million (US$779 million) charging 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.[6][7]

SKY Italia lawsuit

On September 16, 2009, SKY Italia (fully owned by News Corporation) filed a lawsuit to the Court of Milan, Italy, against Reti Televisive Italiane and Publitalia '80 (both owned by Mediaset) for a violation of Article 82 of European Treaty that regulates free economic competition between companies, in particular for refusing to allow SKY Italia to purchase advertising on the three main Mediaset television channels (Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4),[8] exercising Article 700 of the Italian Civil Procedural Code who permit to require an urgent action.[9] Mediaset has rejected the charge of antitrust violations, stating that in 2009 it had broadcast SKY Italia commercials 3107 times on its channels, whereas SKY Italia has always refused to broadcast Mediaset commercials.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Mediaset: Group net negative in 2012 to 287.1 million euro.". La Stampa. Retrieved 2013-06-27.
  2. ↑ "Offices". Mediaset. 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. Retrieved August 11, 2009.
  4. ↑ Martijn van der Starre "Bloomberg News" Mar 26, 2012 Endemol Debt Taken On, Converted Into Shares by Apollo bloomberg.com, Retrieved on January 13, 2014
  5. ↑ Fonte, Giuseppe (May 31, 2008). "Italy court rejects Mediaset appeal to EU ruling". Reuters.
  6. ↑ Lawson, Stephen (July 30, 2008). "Mediaset Files EUR500 Million Suit Vs Google's YouTube". IDG (The New York Times). Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Italian Media Company Sues YouTube". Dow Jones Newswires (CNNMoney.com). July 30, 2008. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
  8. ↑ "News Corporation’s Sky Italia Files Lawsuit Against Mediaset Companies For Antitrust Violations". News Corporation press release. September 16, 2009. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
  9. ↑ "Sky porta Mediaset in tribunale" (in Italian). Il Sole 24 Ore. September 17, 2009. Retrieved September 17, 2009.
  10. ↑ "Mediaset respinge accuse infondate del concorrente SKY". Mediaset Group press release. September 16, 2009. Retrieved September 16, 2009.

External links