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Formerly | Mediaset Italia S.p.A. (2019-2022) |
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Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Mass media |
Founded | 1978 December 15, 1993 (as Gruppo Mediaset) 2019 (as Mediaset Italia) | (as Telemilano)
Founder | Silvio Berlusconi |
Headquarters | Cologno Monzese, Milan, Italy |
Key people | Pier Silvio Berlusconi (CEO) |
Products | Free-to-air and subscription television broadcasting Radio Television Production |
Revenue | €2.801 billion (2022) |
€471 million (2018) | |
Owner | MFE - MediaForEurope |
Number of employees | 4,858 (2022) |
Subsidiaries | Reti Televisive Italiane Publitalia '80 |
Website | www |
Mediaset S.p.A., simply known as Mediaset is an Italian mass media and television production and distribution company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding company MFE - MediaForEurope (the original iteration of Mediaset S.p.A., a.k.a. the Mediaset Group), which is majority-owned by Berlusconi family's Fininvest Group. Stemming from a business founded in 1987 by entrepreneur and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, Mediaset competes primarily against the public broadcaster RAI, the privately owned La7 and (through Sky Group Limited) Comcast'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 broadcasters 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 Milan (Segrate, Cologno Monzese) and Rome. [1]
In 2019, Mediaset transferred its corporate functions to the Netherlands and as a result, the Italian operations were taken over by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mediaset which began operations that year.
Silvio Berlusconi's involvement in the television industry began in 1978, with Telemilano, a local Milan-based broadcaster that became Canale 5 two years later and began broadcasting nationally. Canale 5 was subsequently joined by Italia 1 (bought from the publishing group Rusconi in 1982) and Rete 4 (acquired from Arnoldo Mondadori Editore in 1984). The television area was called RTI and became established with three national analogue networks, supported by an advertising sales company, Publitalia '80, that exclusively collects advertising for all three channels and two other companies, Videotime, that manages TV technology and production activities, and Elettronica Industriale that guarantees signal distribution through the management of the broadcasting infrastructure. In 1987, it bought out Italian's leading home video distributor Domovideo, in a seesaw contest with Vincenzo Romangoli. [2]
In the 1980s, Berlusconi's company Fininvest was contracted to operate TV Koper-Capodistria, a TV station which was intended to serve Italian-speaking audiences in the region of Istria, Slovenia, Yugoslavia, but was widely available in Italy through cable systems. Under Fininvest's control, the station mainly operated as a sports channel. This arrangement ended in 1990. [3] [4]
In 1990, Silvio Berlusconi Communications entered into a partnership with DIC Enterprises and having SBC subsidiary Reteitalia S.p.A. and Spanish TV channel Telecinco (which SBC held a stake) to co-produce shows, [5] a relationship that lasted until 1994.
Eutelsat's Hotbird satellite on Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4 channels are fully encrypted as of 7 September 2015. To continue watching, you will need to purchase the Tivùsat decoder and smartcard, which do not require a monthly subscription, only in Italy. Before 7 September 2015, the 3 Mediaset free channels were encrypted via satellite due to some copyrighted programs and sports events. [6] Mediaset's news channel TGcom24 continues to broadcast free-to-air via satellite.
In October 2021, the headquarters of Mediaset S.p.A. was relocated to Amsterdam, becoming Mediaset N.V. [7]
In November 2021, Mediaset announced a major restructuring, under which it would form a new parent company, MFE – MediaForEurope N.V., which would be domiciled in the Netherlands. [8]
Channel | LCN on DVB-T | LCN on Sky | Launched | Closed | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Premium Action | 459 | – | 1 April 2013 | 10 January 2022 | Television series |
Premium Action HD | – | 125 | 23 June 2015 | ||
Premium Crime | 503 | – | 1 July 2011 | ||
Premium Crime HD | – | 10 | 23 June 2015 | ||
Premium Stories | 462 | – | |||
Premium Stories HD | – | 14 | 4 June 2018 | ||
Premium Cinema 1 | 463 | – | 1 July 2020 | Films | |
Premium Cinema 1 HD | – | 313 | |||
Premium Cinema 1 +24 HD | – | 314 | |||
Premium Cinema 2 | 464 | – | |||
Premium Cinema 2 HD | – | 315 | |||
Premium Cinema 3 | 465 | – | |||
Premium Cinema 3 HD | – | 316 |
On 1 July 2016, the radio activities were merged into the new company RadioMediaset, whose presidency Paolo Salvaderi was appointed. [9] The company deals with the editorial activities of: Radio Monte Carlo, R101, Radio 105 Network, Virgin Radio, Radio Subasio and their respective television networks. [10]
A 2019 study in The American Economic Review examined the impact of Mediaset on Italy during its rollout in the 1980s. The study compared the voting habits of people who grew up in towns and regions that got early access to Mediaset against ones who only got late access to Mediaset. The study noted that Mediaset's programming, especially during the 80s & 90s, was far more slanted toward entertainment and contained far less news and educational content than its competitor, the RAI. It also concluded that "individuals with early access to Mediaset all-entertainment content were more likely to vote for Berlusconi's party in 1994 when he first ran for office... we find that individuals exposed to entertainment TV as children were less cognitively sophisticated and civic-minded as adults, and ultimately more vulnerable to Berlusconi's populist rhetoric." [11] The study said the effect included populist parties in general that offered simple slogans and easy cure-alls, including non-Berlusconi populist parties such as the Five Star Movement. [12]
The network has been heavily criticized over the years by other media and journalists in Italy because of the direct link to politic person of Berlusconi and of the content of some shows: the broadcaster was repeatedly cited as "Merdaset" (rephrasing with the word merda, the Italian for "shit") by some journalists. [13]
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 analogue frequencies and on DVB-T. [14]
On 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. [15] [16]
On 16 September 2009, Sky Italia (owned by the original News Corporation at the time) filed a lawsuit to the Court of Milan, Italy, against Reti Televisive Italiane and Publitalia '80 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), [17] exercising Article 700 of the Italian Civil Procedural Code who permit to require an urgent action. [18] 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. [19]
Italia 1 is an Italian free-to-air television channel on the Mediaset network, owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It is oriented at both young and adult people.
Canale 5 is an Italian free-to-air television channel of Mediaset, owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It was the first private television network to have national coverage in Italy in 1980. On 4 December 2012, Mediaset launched Canale 5 HD, a simulcast of Canale 5 in high-definition. The channel is aimed at a primarily adult audience, mainly offering entertainment, movies and TV series. Since January 2013, Canale 5 has been directed by Giancarlo Scheri.
Finanziaria d'investimento Fininvest S.p.A., also known as Fininvest, is an Italian holding company controlled by the Berlusconi family and managed by Silvio Berlusconi's eldest daughter Marina Berlusconi.
Michael Nicholas Salvatore Bongiorno was an Italian American television presenter. After a few experiences in the U.S., he started working on RAI in the 1950s and was considered to be the most popular host in Italy. He was also known by the nickname il Re del Quiz, and the peculiarity of starting all his shows with his trademark greeting: Allegria!.
Cologno Monzese is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about 5 kilometres (3 mi) northeast of Milan. The population increased substantially after World War II, when many people from Southern Italy settled here.
Mediaset Premium was an Italian pay TV provider owned by Mediaset. Until closure in 2019, it provided subscription TV channels and pay-per-view events via the Italian digital terrestrial television network through the use of a smart card as well as video-on-demand services through its "Premium Play" and "Premium Online" streaming service.
Television in Italy was introduced in 1939, when the first experimental broadcasts began. However, this lasted for a very short time: when fascist Italy entered World War II in 1940, all transmissions were interrupted, and were resumed in earnest only nine years after the end of the war, on January 3, 1954.
Boing is an Italian free-to-air television channel marketed at children and teenagers, owned by Boing S.p.A., a joint venture of Fininvest's MFE - MediaForEurope and Warner Bros. Discovery. It is available on digital terrestrial, television and free-to-air satellite provider Tivùsat.
Pier Silvio Berlusconi is an Italian media businessman. He is the son of the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his first wife Carla Lucia Elvira Dall'Oglio. As a shareholder of Fininvest, the Berlusconi family's holding company, Pier Silvio Berlusconi plays a significant role in the management of the Mediaset Group, now known as MFE - MediaForEurope, where he serves as Executive Vice President and Managing Director.
Mediaset Italia is a Canadian Italian language specialty channel owned by TLN Media Group. It broadcasts programming from Canale 5, a television channel from Italy and local Canadian content.
Grupo Audiovisual Mediaset España Comunicación, S.A.U. is a Spanish media company, controlled by the Italian-based company MFE - MediaForEurope N.V., which is majority-owned by Berlusconi family's Fininvest Group. Its divisions include the generalist free-to-air TV channels Telecinco and Cuatro, thematic channels and a film production subsidiary, Telecinco Cinema.
La5 is an Italian entertainment television channel, launched on 12 May 2010, operated by the media company Mediaset and owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It is broadcast in Italy on DTT channel 30 on mux Mediaset 4 and digital satellite television through Tivù Sat.
Mediaset Italia Due, commonly known as Italia 2, is an Italian television channel, operated by Mediaset and owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It was founded, and started to broadcast, in 2011.
Top Crime, often stylised TOPcrime, is a thematic television channel, dedicated to the TV series and movies on the world of crime, operated by Mediaset and owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. The broadcasts began on 1 June 2013 both on digital terrestrial television, and on satellite via the satellite platform Tivù Sat, both with the channel 39. The trailer with previews of the schedule were first shown on 21 May of that year. The channel started its regular broadcasts transmitting the first two episodes of the seventh season, first-run movies for television of Bones.
20 is an Italian free-to-air television channel, operated by Mediaset and owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It was founded and started to broadcast in 2018.
Focus is an Italian free television channel operated by Mediaset and owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. Focusing on a mixture of factual and entertainment programming, the network deals with topics of natural sciences, pseudoscience and history, in partnership with the homonymous magazine.
This is a list of Italian television related events from 1983.
This is a list of Italian television related events from 1996.
MediaForEurope, officially MFE - MediaForEurope N.V., formerly Mediaset Group, is a Dutch-domiciled Italian-based media and communications company which is majority-owned by the Berlusconi family's Fininvest Group. MFE specialises primarily in free-to-air and pay-TV production and distribution on multiple platforms, as well as in film and multimedia production and distribution, and advertising sales. It has operations in Italy and Spain. It also is the largest single shareholder in ProSiebenSat.1 Media at 26.58%.
Boing S.p.A is an Italian company that is a joint venture between Mediaset and Turner Broadcasting System, established with a share capital of €10 million between Mediaset (51%) and Warner Bros. Discovery (49%). The company operates on television.