Mediaset S.p.A. is an Italian mass media andtelevision production anddistribution company that is the largestcommercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by theholding companyMFE - MediaForEurope (the original iteration of Mediaset S.p.A.,a.k.a. the Mediaset Group), which is majority-owned by the Berlusconi family'sFininvest Group. Stemming from a business founded in 1987 by entrepreneur and later Italian prime ministerSilvio Berlusconi, Mediaset competes primarily against the public broadcasterRAI, the privately ownedLa7 and (throughSky Group Limited)Comcast'sSky Italia.

Mediaset S.p.A.

Headquarters inCologno Monzese (Milan)
Formerly	Mediaset Italia S.p.A. (2019-2022)
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Mass media
Founded	1978; 47 years ago (1978) (as Telemilano) December 15, 1993; 31 years ago (1993-12-15) (as Gruppo Mediaset) 2019; 6 years ago (2019) (as Mediaset Italia)
Founder	Silvio Berlusconi
Headquarters	Cologno Monzese, Milan, Italy
Key people	Pier Silvio Berlusconi (CEO)
Products	Free-to-air and subscription television broadcasting Radio Television Production
Revenue	€2.801 billion (2022)
Net income	€471 million (2018)
Owner	MFE - MediaForEurope
Number of employees	4,858 (2022)
Subsidiaries	Reti Televisive Italiane Publitalia '80
Website	www.mediaset.it

Mediaset's headquarters are inMilan, Lombardy. Many of its studios are located in the Milano 2 area ofSegrate, a municipality bordering Milan, where broadcasts of local station TeleMilano (now airing nationally as Mediaset'sCanale 5) began in 1978. After merging with various local broadcasters to form the Canale 5 syndication, much production was moved toCologno Monzese, where the infrastructure of the former Telealtomilanese was present. The company currently has three main television production centres, inMilan (Segrate,Cologno Monzese) andRome.^[1]

In 2019, Mediaset transferred its corporate functions to the Netherlands and as a result, the Italian operations were taken over by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mediaset which began operations that year.

Silvio Berlusconi's involvement in the television industry began in 1978, withTelemilano, a localMilan-based broadcaster that becameCanale 5 two years later and began broadcasting nationally. Canale 5 was subsequently joined byItalia 1 (bought from the publishing group Rusconi in 1982) andRete 4 (acquired fromArnoldo Mondadori Editore in 1984). The television area was calledRTI and became established with three national analogue networks, supported by an advertising sales company,Publitalia '80, that exclusively collects advertising for all three channels and two other companies,Videotime, that manages TV technology and production activities, andElettronica Industriale that guarantees signal distribution through the management of the broadcasting infrastructure. In 1987, it bought out Italian's leading home video distributor Domovideo, in a seesaw contest with Vincenzo Romangoli.^[2]

In the 1980s, Berlusconi's companyFininvest was contracted to operateTV Koper-Capodistria, a TV station which was intended to serve Italian-speaking audiences in the region ofIstria,Slovenia,Yugoslavia, but was widely available in Italy through cable systems. Under Fininvest's control, the station mainly operated as a sports channel. This arrangement ended in 1990.^[3][4]

In 1990,Silvio Berlusconi Communications entered into a partnership withDIC Enterprises and having SBC subsidiaryReteitalia S.p.A. [it] and Spanish TV channelTelecinco (which SBC held a stake) to co-produce shows,^[5] a relationship that lasted until 1994.

Eutelsat'sHotbird satellite onCanale 5,Italia 1 andRete 4 channels are fully encrypted as of 7 September 2015. To continue watching, you will need to purchase theTivùsat decoder and smartcard, which do not require a monthly subscription, only in Italy. Before 7 September 2015, the 3 Mediaset free channels were encrypted via satellite due to some copyrighted programs and sports events.^[6] Mediaset's news channelTGcom24 continues to broadcast free-to-air via satellite.

In October 2021, the headquarters of Mediaset S.p.A. was relocated to Amsterdam, becoming Mediaset N.V.^[7]

In November 2021, Mediaset announced a major restructuring, under which it would form a new parent company,MFE – MediaForEurope N.V., which would be domiciled in the Netherlands.^[8]

On 1 July 2016, the radio activities were merged into the new company RadioMediaset, whose presidency Paolo Salvaderi was appointed.^[9] The company deals with the editorial activities of: Radio Monte Carlo, R101, Radio 105 Network, Virgin Radio, Radio Subasio and their respective television networks.^[10]

• Mediaset Infinity

• Mediaset Italia

A 2019 study inThe American Economic Review examined the impact of Mediaset on Italy during its rollout in the 1980s. The study compared the voting habits of people who grew up in towns and regions that got early access to Mediaset against ones who only got late access to Mediaset. The study noted that Mediaset's programming, especially during the 80s & 90s, was far more slanted toward entertainment and contained far less news and educational content than its competitor, theRAI. It also concluded that "individuals with early access to Mediaset all-entertainment content were more likely to vote for Berlusconi's party in 1994 when he first ran for office... we find that individuals exposed to entertainment TV as children were less cognitively sophisticated and civic-minded as adults, and ultimately more vulnerable to Berlusconi's populist rhetoric."^[11] The study said the effect included populist parties in general that offered simple slogans and easy cure-alls, including non-Berlusconi populist parties such as theFive Star Movement.^[12]

The network has been heavily criticized over the years by other media and journalists in Italy because of the direct link to politic person ofBerlusconi and of the content of some shows: the broadcaster was repeatedly cited as "Merdaset" (rephrasing with the wordmerda, the Italian for "shit") by some journalists.^[13]

In January 2008, the European Court of Justice ruled that the TV frequencies used by Mediaset to broadcastRete 4 were shared out unfairly. They should have been given toEuropa 7, a competitor channel, the judges maintain, andRete 4 should be broadcast via satellite instead. Although the Italian Council of State, the highest court on administrative matters, has confirmed that the Italian government should abide by this European ruling, Rete 4 continues its operation on analogue frequencies and onDVB-T.^[14]

On 30 July 2008, Mediaset filed a lawsuit against Google for €500 million (US$779 million) charging copyright infringement. The company stated that 325 hours worth of material was uploaded to YouTube and the result was the loss of 315,672 viewing days and ad revenue.^[15][16]

On 16 September 2009,Sky Italia (owned by the originalNews Corporation at the time) filed a lawsuit to the Court of Milan, Italy, against Reti Televisive Italiane and Publitalia '80 for a violation of Article 82 of European Treaty that regulates free economic competition between companies, in particular for refusing to allow Sky Italia to purchase advertising on the three main Mediaset television channels (Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4),^[17] exercising Article 700 of the Italian Civil Procedural Code who permit to require an urgent action.^[18] Mediaset has rejected the charge of antitrust violations, stating that in 2009 it had broadcast Sky Italia commercials 3107 times on its channels, whereas Sky Italia has always refused to broadcast Mediaset commercials.^[19]

• TGCOM, an Italian news website owned by Mediaset
• Television in Italy

• Official website