After suffering heavy losses in 2016 following litigation with Vivendi, Mediaset’s accounts for the first quarter of 2017 are back in profit.
The Italian group posted a net profit of €15.9 million for the first three months of the year, against a deficit of €18 million for the same period in 2016.
However, despite an increased turnover in Spain (€240.4 million, up 4.2%), the company controlled by the Berlusconi family recorded a decline in its net sales compared to last year (€889.3 million, or a decrease of 2.5%).
In a statement, Mediaset’s management said advertising revenues, up 2.4% in the first quarter, “should remain positive for the rest of the year…despite an uncertain economic environment.” The group also said there are no developments in its dispute with the French company Vivendi which began last year.
Taken as a whole, Mediaset recorded a net loss of €294.5 million in 2016, the largest in its history. According to the Group’s management, these bad results are due to last July’s aborted sale of its pay-TV package, Mediaset Premium, to Vivendi last July.
In December relations between the two companies deteriorated further when Vivendi increased its shareholding in Mediaset to 28.8%. According to the Berlusconi family this was a “hostile” move, recently challenged by Agcom, the Italian telecoms watchdog. It found that Vivendi’s participation in Mediaset and Telecom Italia was incompatible with the Gasparri Law, which forbids a company from being powerful in both the media and telecoms.
Sources: Satellifax, L’Usine Nouvelle, Le Monde
