The new terrestrial pay TV operation from Swedish based Airplus AB in Italy will launch as Dahlia TV on March 7. Until the sale of the operation by Telecom Italia Media to the new owners, the service was known as La7 Cartapiù. The Dahlia brand has already been established in Spain by Airplus.
Dahlia TV will continue to show much of the same programming as La7 Cartapiù, but the service will be more targeted at a male viewership by adding adult and other sports programming to the fare. The launch will be accompanied by a big marketing campaign costing €8 million. It will offer 3-months trial subscriptions for €10, while annual subscriptions will cost €30-40, depending on the package.
The new line-up of five Dahlia TV channels will be as follows: Dahlia Football: matches from Series B and Series A (these are right currently owned by Cartapiù); Dahlia Sport: a new general sports channel with anything from boxing to sailing, but also including football from the Spanish League and the UEFA Cup; Dahlia Extreme: extreme sports and lifestyle; Dahlia Eros: with ‘spicy’ programming and Adult Dahlia: a real “hard core” channel.
The service will have a technical reach of 85% of the Italian population.
