Advanced Television

Vivendi dispute costs Mediaset €100m

March 24, 2017

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

The dispute with Vivendi over the sale of its pay-TV unit has negatively impacted the 2016 accounts of Italian broadcaster Mediaset by €100 million.

The figure was announced by Mediaset Chief Executive Pier Silvio Berlusconi, who added that the 2017 results will be much better. However, he denied any ongoing negotiations with the French media company, adding that currently only legal action is taking place.

Berlusconi explained that the €100 million includes the drop in the value of company shares, the period of interim management of Mediaset Premium during which contracts had to be signed that otherwise would not have done and the slowdown of the marketing campaign.

Berlusconi added that Mediaset Premium’s subscriber base is stable at 2 million subscribers and that the operator is still the center of interest of various players.

He also announced that a new video content distribution platform will be launched in the coming months, similar to RAI’s RaiPlay that will be capable of distributing both free and subscription-based content.

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