Mediaset will launch two new channels on Italian DTT. Iris will be a channel devoted to cinema and theatre and is slated for a November 30 launch. Programming will range from art movies to Hollywood classics, comedies and B-movies. Part of the 18-hour daily broadcast schedule will be devoted to Italian theatre, classical music and opera.
Bis is meanwhile due to launch in the first quarter of 2008 and will comprise classic programmes and reruns from ‘the history of Italian commercial television’, drawn from the archives of Italia 1, Canale 5 and Rete 4. The new channels will be led by Miriam Pisani, who until now has been vice president of Canale 5. Mediaset has run a kids and family channel called Boing since the inception of DTT in 2004.