Italy DTT auction is “wrong” says Berlusconi

Mediaset’s vice chairman, Pier Silvio Berlusconi, says Italy’s planned auction of six new digital terrestrial frequencies is “wrong and unfair”.

Berlusconi, son of Italy’s former Prime Minister, said similar DTT frequencies in the rest of Europe had been awarded without fees. He told Italian news daily La Stampa: “An auction would not only be wrong but unfair, as elsewhere in Europe frequencies have been assigned for free,” he said. “It would also be an unrealistic decision because the real issue for our business is the heavy investments needed to create competitive content, not the frequencies.”

Berlusconi told the newspaper that despite the economic pressures on Italy he expected to close its 2011 trading with profits in excess of €200 million (in 2010 it was €342 million). Additionally the planned three-year cost-cutting exercise was now kicking and would be worth some €250 million of savings in 2012.