ITALY / Vivendi buys Mediaset’s pay-TV platform

On April 8^th the Italian group Mediaset announced the sale of its entire pay-TV subsidiary Mediaset Premium, which has two million subscribers.

Vivendi’s supervisory board approved the €800 million transaction. 89% of Mediaset Premium’s capital was held by Mediaset, while the remaining 11% belonged to the Spanish group Telefonica.

Furthermore, as rumoured recently, Vivendi and Mediaset will exchange 3.5% of their capital. This merger is a first step towards the creation of a pay-TV platform capable of competing with Sky and especially Netflix in Europe.

In the statement, Mediaset said there would not be a seat on the board of directors for Vivendi, and that the deal was not “a first step towards the Berlusconi family withdrawing from Mediaset.”

Sources: Telecompaper, Les Echos