Mediaset boss Pier Silvio Berlusconi says its wrong to assume the Italian broadcaster is looking for a sale of its pay-TV unit Mediaset Premium.
Berlusconi said at a press briefing on Tuesday that there were no discussions taking place with Sky Italia over the sale of the business that is currently distributed over the terrestrial network. However, there were talks with Vivendi over the distribution of its premium content, not that Berlusconi saw the possibility of any immediate agreement.
A new multiplatform decoder capable of receiving signals from satellite, terrestrial and broadband is currently under development. Berlusconi said it is expected to be ready in January 2016 ahead of a new satellite pay offer that would debut in February or March.
He was circumspect about whether the Italian market could actually support two premium offers, but was adamant there would be no deal with Sky over rights to the Champions League.
There are further conversations taking place with mobile operators that include Telecom Italia and Vodafone.
