Italian broadcaster Mediaset has said it still expects its contentious pay-television deal with French media company Vivendi to be completed and has maintained the ongoing impasse will not hamper its efforts in the forthcoming bidding process for two key football properties in Italy.
Mediaset, one of the leading sports broadcasters in Italy, is currently seeking damages from Vivendi after it stepped away from an April agreement to take full control of the Italian group’s pay-television division, Mediaset Premium.
Fininvest, the parent company of Mediaset, in August filed a claim for damages of €570m ($627m) against Vivendi for allegedly failing to comply with the terms of the takeover deal for Mediaset Premium.
Mediaset had earlier asked a Milan court to force Vivendi to fulfil its contract and pay damages of €50m per month, starting from July 25, in a separate claim.
Under the original deal, Vivendi was set to acquire 100 per cent of Mediaset Premium, with both companies taking a 3.5-per-cent stake in each other. Vivendi made a revised offer to sell a 3.5-per-cent stake in its business in exchange for a 20-per-cent shareholding in Mediaset Premium and a 3.5-per-cent stake in Mediaset, but this was rejected by Mediaset at the end of July.
Commenting on the latest developments in the dispute, Mediaset’s chief financial officer Marco Giordani said, according to the Reuters news agency: “We are still firm on the validity of the existing binding contract signed in April… and do not expect (any) other scenario than the execution of the contract.”
Asked whether Mediaset Premium would be able to bid in rights tenders for domestic Serie A football and the Uefa Champions League, both due to be held in the first half of next year, Giordani said Vivendi would “take care of the auctions”.
Giordani was speaking after Mediaset confirmed that its net loss increased to €88.8m in the third quarter from €60m a year earlier. Mediaset was also hit by €50m in one-off charges related to the Vivendi deal that had not been forecast.
It added that Vivendi’s decision to exit the agreement served to slow Premium’s sales growth, up five per cent in the third quarter, compared to an increase of 16 per cent in the first six months of the year.
“We have lost the possibility to take advantage in this quarter of the exclusive football rights (owned by Premium),” Giordani said.