Italian Football fans have something to rejoice about in the aftermath of the National Team’s poor display in the World Cup. Media tycoons Silvio Berlusconi and Rupert Murdoch are engaged in a corporate catfight to win over the hearts and wallets of Italy’s football fans. Mediaset, owned by Silvio Berlusconi, and Sky Italia, owned by Rupert Murdoch, have been waging a price war for television soccer viewers. The gloves are apparently off and the media moguls are going at it like two shameless divas.
The competition between the two former friends began to take an adversarial tone when Berlusconi, also Italy’s Prime Minister, passed a law that doubled the tax paid by satellite television subscribers to 20% VAT. This law conveniently hit Sky Italia hard since it is a satellite television provider, unlike Mediaset, which is cable television broadcaster. Murdoch supposedly retaliated by publishing newspaper articles about the Prime Minister’s sexual and financial scandals in several News Corp (parent company of Sky Italia) publications. Additionally, Sky Italia has sued several subsidiaries of Mediaset for refusing to allow Sky to purchase advertising on some of their main television channels.
Now Silvio has decided to take things to another level by cutting prices for Mediaset’s soccer and film pay television package from 29 euros to 14 euros, undercutting Sky Italia’s pay per view deal.
Not that I am against watching this train wreck of an affair between two 70 plus year old men, but you would think that they would have better things to do with their time. At least Italian soccer fans can rejoice. For once, Silvio’s personal agenda is having beneficial external consequences for Italy’s citizens. I say these grumpy old men fight to the death. At the rate things are going, the two will soon be paying subscribers instead of charging them.
