Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp said it filed suit on Wednesday against Mediaset, owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, for unfair competition. News Corp said its wholly-owned Sky Italia unit filed a lawsuit in Milan against RTI and Publitalia, both owned by Mediaset, “for violation of antitrust rules … and for unfair competition.”
“News Corporation believes these companies have violated EC rules governing free competition, as well as Italian media regulation, by refusing to allow Sky Italia to purchase advertising on leading Italian commercial networks Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4.”
The lawsuit is the latest spat between Berlusconi, who controls much of the Italian media industry, and Murdoch whose Sky Italia dominates Italy’s pay TV sector with 4.8 million subscribers for 90 percent of the market. Mediaset holds a market share of about five percent and in July it announced, along with RAI, a free satellite service which was seen as an open challenge to News Corp.
In June, Berlusconi, embroiled in a series of scandals about his private life, complained that he was being made a target by Murdoch, who among other titles owns The Times in London. Berlusconi charged that “the foreign press which criticises (me) is inspired by certain Italian newspapers or belong to someone who is opposed to Mediaset.”
A doubling of Italian sales tax on satellite channel subcriptions at the end of 2008 especially irked Sky Italia given its market dominance.
(Source: AFP)
