Mediaset

Mediaset SpA
legal form	Società per azioni
ISIN	IT0001063210
founding	1978
Seat	Cologno Monzese , Italy
management	Fedele Confalonieri, Chairman of the Board ; Pier Silvio Berlusconi , CEO ;
Number of employees	5,470
sales	3.63 billion euros
Branch	media
Website	www.mediaset.it
	As of December 31, 2017

The Mediaset SpA is an Italian media company based in Cologno Monzese in Milan . The company is the largest provider of commercial television in Italy and Spain. Mediaset is listed in the FTSE Italia Mid Cap share index.

history

Transmission tower in Cologno Monzese near Milan

The media group Mediaset was founded in 1978 by Silvio Berlusconi as a subsidiary of the Fininvest holding company. The company was the first private broadcasting group to broadcast a single program across Italy.

The company is located in Cologno Monzese in Milan , where the main television production center is also located. Further production facilities are located in the Milano 2 ( Segrate ) district and in Rome . Mediaset is also active in Spain , where, through its subsidiary Mediaset Investimenti, it holds 50.13% of the television broadcaster Telecinco , which Berlusconi co-founded and which is now the largest television broadcaster on the Spanish market. In addition, Mediaset holds almost 25% of the shares in ProSiebenSat.1 Media , the parent company of ProSieben and Sat.1, on the German market .

Mediaset also controls, among other things, one of the world's largest advertising agencies, which primarily, but not exclusively, produces advertising for television. The largest companies are Publitalia 80 (for the Italian market), Publiespaña (for Telecinco) and Publieurope (for all other markets).

Since December 1, 2003, Mediaset has also been transmitting in the DTT or DVB-T formats via a decoder and, since August 2005, also via a second decoder.

Only two of the Mediaset channels in Italy are allowed to broadcast regularly, Canale 5 and Italia 1 . The position of Rete 4 has been discussed for 20 years, as it is feared that Mediaset would have too strong a monopoly. Mediaset has also acquired HSE24 (has since sold) , founded the free, digitally receivable children's channel Boing and created a pay-per-view offer with Mediaset Premium .

New channels for the DVB-H standard (new standard for television via mobile phone) will be created shortly .

To give an indication of pluralism that has never been seen in Italy (taking into account the duopoly in the Italian television landscape), Italian competition law requires that at least 40% of Mediaset channels be sold or rented to third parties. Agreements were made with Vodafone and H3G , and the frequencies were bought by Sportitalia . The competition supervisory authority has given its approval, but on one condition: the frequencies may only be used for mobile phone television, not for analogue TV reception.

Criticism and controversy

On June 15, 2010, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg issued a judgment ordering the repayment of state aid for the Mediaset group. That can amount to a three-digit million sum. It concerns subsidies for the purchase of decoders for the reception of digital terrestrial broadcast programs.

The Mediaset group was criticized for one-sided reporting, particularly during election campaign times. The broadcast Studio Aperto was fined 100,000 euros by the Italian media regulator, while the TG4 broadcast on Rete 4 had to pay 200,000 euros.