Sky to cover Italian market

News Corporation are to buy Italian pay-TV group Telepiu from foundering media rival Vivendi Universal, in a deal worth £560m.
Rupert Murdoch confirmed his plans to combine the new acquisition with Stream, the pay-TV business News Corporation owns in partnership with Telecom Italia, to form Sky Italia. News Corporation will hold 80% of the new venture and Telecom Italia the balance.
"This is a world-class property in an untapped market without cable competition," said Murdoch. "We would expect to see immediate subscriber growth, the elimination of piracy and compelling programming."
The merger of Telepiu and Stream, which is likely to have to pass the scrutiny of competition watchdogs in Brussels, is seen as a serious challenge to the traditional terrestrial channels in Italy which are split between Mediaset, controlled by prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest, and state-owned Rai.
Sky Italia will launch next summer with an expected subscriber base of 1.9m.
(GB)