According to La Repubblica, the state broadcaster’s internal advertising sales division, Sipra, did not maximise revenues around the event and is generally not as effective as its rival Publitalia, the advertising arm of commercial broadcaster Mediaset. Mediaset, owned by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, recorded profits of €386 million last year.
“Sipra’s sales agents are used to dealing in big numbers with big investors – those who are now fleeing TV,” the paper said. “They don’t seem to have to the ability to hunt out advertisers among smaller businesses, something which the men from Publitalia do rather well, even discounting the company’s ‘political dividend’. For this reason, Sipra was unable to capitalise on last year’s World Cup.”