Pier Silvio Berlusconi, the 56-year-old son of the late Silvio (founder of Italy’s Mediaset TV broadcast group), and Mediaset’s president, is inching closer to the realization of his MediaForEurope (MFE) dream of a pan-European group of TV networks covering Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Berlusconi has been patiently working on this project since 1994 when he took over the reins of the Italian TV group that originally included Milan-based Mediaset (which runs flagship TV network Canale 5, in addition to other broadcast and thematic channels) and Madrid-based Mediaset España (which runs the flagship TV network Telecinco, among other channels), and recently (although he first sought after it in 2006), he’s finally the majority shareholder of Unterföhring, Germany-based ProSiebenSat.1 (which runs German-language TV networks in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but with different commercials and news programs). He’s also in exclusive talks for the purchase of a relevant stake in the Paco de Arcos, Portugal-based media group Impresa, which runs the flagship SIC TV network.
Berlusconi’s son is fulfilling what Silvio himself failed to achieve when he created the La Cinq TV network in France (which operated from 1986 until 1992) and started Tele 5 (Tele Fünf) in Germany (which operated from 1988 until 1992). This time around, however, success will not be determined by politics, but will be a matter of being able to simplify a complex social, cultural, and linguistic structure — something that no one in Europe has been able to effectively do since Imperial Rome when the lingua franca was Latin. (The Third Reich, of course, tried and, fortunately, failed.)
For example, while Mediaset España with Mediterraneo, ProSiebenSat.1 with Seven. One, and Impresa with SIC International Distribution all have strong international content sales operations, MFE’s weakest link has been Mediaset Italia’s own content distribution division, as its international operations are only now becoming properly valued at the corporate level following the appointment of Guido Pisterna as the new head of Business (official title: Director of Brand Extension), in charge of content distribution for Mediaset.
And speaking of simplicity, it is interesting to note that MFE was formed due to an intricate set of circumstances in 2021 when Mediaset SpA’s legal office was relocated from Milan to Amsterdam. MFE is controlled by Fininvest, a group created by Silvio Berlusconi in 1975. In turn, MFE controls Mediaset SpA, which controls Mediaset España. Before it was called Mediaset, Fininvest’s TV group was called Reteitalia. It became Mediaset in 1993. The ProSiebenSat.1 group is controlled by MFE. Paris-based Vivendi, which at that time owned the media group Canal Plus, opposed the creation of MFE as Mediaset’s second largest investor, but in 2021 Fininvest acquired Vivendi’s 24.9 percent share of Mediaset and the MFE operation was able to proceed (if only with some initial resistance from the ProSiebenSat.1 group).
The terrestrial TV network ProSiebenSat.1 also has a complicated past. It was created as ProSieben (meaning Pro-Seven in English) in 1999 by onetime German media powerhouse the Kirch Group and merged with Kirch’s Sat1 TV service. With the collapse of the Kirch Group (4.76 percent of which was owned by Silvio Berlusconi’s group), ProSiebenSat1 was acquired in 2003 for 500 million euro by the American-Israeli Haim Saban. He sold that stake three years later for three billion euro to private equity firms Permira in the U.K. and KKR in the U.S.
By 2009 ProSiebenSat1 had a debt of 3.4 billion euro and had to sell its TV holdings in Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe. In 2014, Permira and KKR were out of ProSiebenSat.1 share capital, and the German media group became a public company trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Berlusconi’s group began acquiring ProSiebenSat.1 shares in 2019 and it now owns 75.61 percent.
In late September, VideoAge contacted Angelo Santoro, Pier Silvio Berlusconi’s spokesperson, to ask for an interview, and was told that, “for the moment, Pier Silvio doesn’t give interviews, perhaps later on.” The last time that VideoAge interviewed Pier Silvio Berlusconi was for a front cover story for its October 2009 issue about an ill-fated acquisition of a 33 percent stake in Endemol, which was bought in 2007 for $877 million, and sold in 2012 for $96 million.
Coincidentally, during a late ’80s interview with Silvio Berlusconi, VideoAge questioned the vaunted synergy between Fininvest (Mediaset’s parent company) and La Standa, the department store/supermarket that Fininvest acquired in 1988 for the equivalent of U.S. $810 million (in 1988 dollars), and sold in 1998 for U.S. $440 million (in 1998 dollars).
Similarly, VideoAge questioned the subsequent acquisition of Endemol during an interview with Silvio’s son, Pier Silvio.
However, this time around, VideoAge has only praise for this latest challenge undertaken by Mediaset, even though we were unable to get detailed information from Mediaset, Mediterráneo, and SIC representatives.
A rep at Germany’s Seven.One initially said: “Please understand that at this early stage we are unable to comment on the priorities of individual ProSiebenSat.1 business areas with regard to MFE. One thing is clear: Seven.One Studios continues to produce great formats and is working strategically toward future growth.”
However, during MIPCOM in Cannes, Henrik Pabst, who serves as chief content officer for the entire ProSiebenSat.1 universe (and is responsible for all of the company’s channels, as well as its streaming service, Joyn, in the entire German-speaking region), met with VideoAge to express his enthusiasm for this new undertaking. “It will offer good synergies,” he said, while noting that a group of executives from Mediaset and ProSieben were meeting at the Seven.One MIPCOM stand, communicating in English since it was the only language they had in common.
Pabst sees synergy in technology, data, and advertising, since, he said, “[market] size matters.” Based in Munich, Seven.One (formerly Red Arrow) already has seven production companies and a major office in London: Just Friends (Germany) for factual; Pyjama Pictures (Germany) for drama; Studio Flitz (Switzerland) for creator content; and Redseven (Germany), CLP (U.K.), Snowman (Denmark), and July August (Israel) for reality.
Failed attempts to create a pan-European TV landscape (then abbreviated as PETV) began in earnest in 1983 with Sky Channel, and continued throughout the ’80s, culminating in 1987 with MTV Europe, considered the PETV par excellence as it used English as the lingua franca. Paramount Skydance, MTV’s owner, plans to shut down MTV in Europe at the end of 2025.
By the end of 1997 German Bertelsmann media group CLT-UFA was managing 22 TV channels in nine European countries. Today, RTL mainly operates M6 TV network in France, RTL TV in Germany, RTL TV in Hungary, and Fremantle, a production and distribution company in the U.K.
In the 1990s various media buying agencies also began showing an interest in PETV, including the French advertising agency Carat (now part of Japan’s Dentsu), which had a full staff in its London office dedicated to planning and buying pan-European television.
France made another attempt to develop a pan-European network in 2006 with the short-lived broadband and satellite service Orange TV (France Telecom), serving territories covered by the Telco.
More recently, it appears that the Canal Plus acquisition of SPI (which, among other TV assets, has 15 cable/IPTV channels in various European territories) could put the French media group in competition with MFE, but the whole Canal Plus project seems mired in complexity, bureaucracy, and what appears to be an unclear vision. Created in 1984 as an encrypted premium subscription terrestrial TV service, Canal Plus reportedly expanded with some of the terrestrial TV frequencies relinquished by Berlusconi’s La Cinq.
Given the complexity of the operation, VideoAge can only assume that MFE should opt for a simple structure with a strong worldwide division to operate properly.
The structure would include: MFE Studios (for productions and co-productions), MFE International (for international content transmissions — cable, satellite and IPTV), and MFE Global Sales, in addition to a streaming division and a terrestrial TV broadcast division (in the affiliate style of the U.S. TV networks).
(By Dom Serafini)
Audio Version (a DV Works service)
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