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Italian TV unites against Sky Italia |
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| Chris Forrester and Rose Major, on 09-10-2008 |
 Italian public broadcaster RAI has linked with commercial broadcaster Mediaset to plan the launch of a rival digital platform to Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia. The service is called Tivù, and will use the nation’s digital terrestrial (DTT) spectrum as well as satellite.
Tivu is unashamedly modelled on the UK’s digital Freeview (mostly)
free-TV service. RAI and Mediaset (owned ultimately by Silvio
Berlusconi’s family interests) each hold 48% of the new operation, with
Telecom Italia having a four per cent stake. The plan must now get past
regulators.
Local reports say it will start operations late this year for the DTT
platform, Tivù, and in the first half of next year for the satellite
version, Tivù Sat. The platform will be mainly a marketing tool for
both the platforms themselves and for receivers, in particular at the
point of sale.
All free-to-air channels broadcasting in Italy will be free to join the platform, with no payment necessary.
Irdeto will be used to encrypt the satellite version to avoid overspill
into neighbouring countries but it is unclear on which satellite the
channels will be carried. Local reports say talks with Eutelsat have
not borne fruit.
Sky Italia, an all-pay service, has 4.5m subscribers, helped by Italian
soccer. Mediaset Premium, a pre-paid four-channel bouquet (movies,
series and Disney) is already available on DTT.
© Rapid TV News 2008
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