Telefonica has announced the purchase of an 11.1 percent stake in the pay-TV business of Italian broadcaster Mediaset for EUR 100 million. The deal for Mediaset Premium comes shortly after Telefonica completed its acquisition of Mediaset’s 22 percent stake in Spanish pay-TV platform Digital+ for an initial EUR 295 million. Confirming the agreement for Premium, Mediaset added that it would transfer its pay-TV activities to a new company with an equity value of EUR 900 million.
Mediaset is also in talks with other companies including Al Jazeera and Vivendi on possible tie-ups in the pay-TV sector in Italy, Mediaset’s vice chairman Pier Silvio Berlusconi told Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "There is nothing concrete, but we are talking to other partners that would give us access to the English-speaking market, the world's first market followed by the Spanish one," Stressing the need for international alliances to remain competitive, Berlusconi added that "we are dealing with global competitors, full of resources, which are very aggressive and ruthless.”
