Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset has announced the acquisition of a 9.6 percent stake in German counterpart ProSiebenSat.1 for an undisclosed sum. The stake corresponds to up to 9.9 percent of ProSiebenSat.1’s voting rights, excluding treasury stocks, said Mediaset, which has been touting the idea of creating a pan-European TV player for several months. In a statement, Mediaset CEO Piersilvio Berlusconi said: “the friendly acquisition of a stake in ProSiebenSat.1 is a long-term choice, aimed at creating value with an increasingly international outlook." He added that European media companies will need to join forces “if we are to continue to compete, or even just resist, in terms of our European cultural identity, eventual attacks by the global giants.”
The CEO of ProSiebenSat.1, Max Conze, had previously said the company had “no interest” in being part of a cross-border merger with Mediaset and was focused on building up its own business, stating as recently as last month that "I don’t see the industrial logic of a merger".
Mediaset has worked alongside ProSiebenSat.1 in the European Media Alliance (EMA) over the past 5 years. Last year it signed a content-sharing deal with Sky Italia, followed by an agreement with Telecom Italia to give the operator’s customers access to its free-to-air channels from January.
