Mediaset CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi says the Italian media company will continue to push ahead with its plan for a ‘pan-European hub of free TV’.
In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Berlusconi said legal action brought by aggressive shareholder Vivendi had caused “enormous damage” to Mediaset and its shareholders.
“We want to build the pan-European hub of free TV. And I am proud that an Italian company will do it. You need a player of sufficient size to stay in the game with the American giants: alone, no one in Europe will make it. And if Vivendi hadn’t blocked us, we would have already completed the merger with Spain and also included the stake in ProsiebenSat1”.
Berlusconi told the paper talks were underway with other European operators and a US player. He said the investigation by the Milan prosecutor’s office threw up many questions.
The long running dispute with Vivendi, the operator of Canal Plus, stretches back to 2016 when a deal for the French media conglomerate to buy pay-DTT operation Mediaset Plus collapsed in acrimony.
