The French media company Vivendi has announced that by the end of the month it will create a subsidiary in Italy, where for more than a year a legal dispute has pitted it against the Italian group Mediaset.
Vivendi’s CEO, Arnaud de Puyfontaine
The news was announced by Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Chairman of Vivendi’s Executive Board. The subsidiary, named simply Vivendi Italia SpA, will be created by the end of June and based in Milan. It will invest in producing entertainment programmes (sports, films, TV series, events), relying in particular on partnerships with the Venice Film Festival, Cinecittà and film schools.
“We want to contribute to the revival of Italian cinema,” said Arnaud de Puyfontaine, “to make Italy an attractive centre for young talents”.
De Puyfontaine also said Vivendi was planning to enter the race for the broadcasting rights for the Italian football championship’s A Series, which will be sold by June 10th.
Vivendi’s new offensive on Italian territory is part of the company’s strategy to create a European Netflix – a project initiated by the company’s principal shareholder Vincent Bolloré. And this despite the strained relations with the Italian group Mediaset, 30% of which is now owned by Vivendi. Contact between the two companies has not been re-established since the aborted sale of Mediaset Premium.
In addition Vivendi is due to be auditioned by Agcom, the Italian telecoms regulator. The French group is threatened with sanctions for having too high a stake in both Italian media (Mediaset) and telecoms (Telecom Italia). To comply with Italian law, Vivendi will either have to reduce its shareholding in one of these or pay a fine equal of between 2 and 5% of its profits.
Sources: Il Sole 24 Ore, Telecompaper
