Mediaset to launch IPTV pay-TV service
October 23, 2008
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Italian broadcaster Mediaset plans to launch its pay-TV service, Premium Gallery, currently available exclusively on DTT, on Telecom Italia's IPTV platform Alice Home TV.
Speaking during a Parliamentary enquiry, Mediaset president, Fedele Confalonieri, announced that the pay-TV channels Joi, Mya and Steel will be available on Alice Home TV from January-February 2009, together with two VOD services: one with content from the Mediaset library and a second with hit movies and TV series from Warner and Universal including "Dr House", "Life", "Monk" and "Nip/Tuck" "Lipstick Jungle", "The Closer", "Gossip Girl" and "Men in Trees".
Confalonieri said that currently 50 per cent of Italian families have at least one digital TV platform (satellite, DTT and IPTV); 8 million households have a satellite dish, out of which 4.55 million subscribe to Sky Italia; 7 million families have DTT (30 per cent) equal to around 16,6 million individuals; 360.000 families have IPTV (1.5 per cent) which equals to around 850,000 individuals. He added that an estimated 1,5 million new Italian families will be equipped to receive digital terrestrial over the next 12 months.
On September 30, Mediaset Premium had a total of 2,233,732 active smart-cards in pre-paid mode, 5,486,367 activated top-ups (January-September 2008), 228,262 active smart-cards in easy pay mode. Overall net revenues from pay-TV services on September 30 amounted to E365.5 million.