Mediaset

Mediaset S.p.A. is an Italian mass media and television production and distribution company that 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 the Berlusconi family's Fininvest Group. Stemming from a business founded in 1987 by entrepreneur and later 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]

History

Starting in late 1970s

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 and Spanish TV channel Telecinco (which SBC held a stake) to co-produce shows,[5] a relationship that lasted until 1994.

The subsidiary production company Mediavivere was created in 1999 specifically to produce the Italian soap opera Vivere, which was broadcast on Canale 5 from 1999 to 2007 and on Rete 4 from 2007 to 2008. The company also produced the soap opera CentoVetrine, which aired on Canale 5 from 2001 to 2016,[6][7] as well as several television miniseries between 2006 and 2015. Mediavivere was dissolved in 2016.

2010s

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.[8] Mediaset's news channel TGcom24 continues to broadcast free-to-air via satellite.

2020s

In October 2021, the headquarters of Mediaset S.p.A. was relocated to Amsterdam, becoming Mediaset N.V.[9]

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.[10]

former names	Mediaset Italia S.p.A. (2019–2022)
type	Subsidiary
founder	Silvio Berlusconi
foundation	December 15, 1993 (brand)<Br>2019 (company)
location	Cologno Monzese, Milan, Italy
key people	Pier Silvio Berlusconi (CEO)
industry	Mass media
products	Free-to-air and subscription television broadcasting Radio Television Production
revenue	€2.801 billion
revenue year	2022
net income	€471 million
net income year	2018
num employees	4,858
num employees year	2022
subsid	Reti Televisive Italiane Publitalia '80 Mediaset España
owner	MFE – MediaForEurope
homepage	www.mediaset.it

History

Starting in late 1970s

2010s

2020s

Holdings

Premium-tier channels

Radio

Streaming service

International service

Impact

Criticism

Lawsuits

Europa 7

Google

Sky Italia

See also

External links

References