Mediaset Group

The entire Italian generalistic television will be broadcast in digital terrestrial technology by 2012. Since the very beginning in 2003, the Mediaset Group strongly believed in this new technology and invested approximately EUR 1.7 billion in the process of shifting frequencies to the digital technology as well as in the purchase of content. Thanks to the digital terrestrial technology, Mediaset improved the offering of its three main networks by introducing two new channels - Iris and Boing (in partnership with Turner Broadcasting System Europe of the Time Warner Group) and Mediashopping. Thanks to its broadcasting capacity, the Group also transports third party channels, offers premium content in pay - per - view format and has begun DVB-H technology based broadcasting for Mobile TV.
Next year, free - to - air network programme schedules will progressively migrate first to 16:9 format and then to high definition in order to improve image quality and provide viewers with a more compelling television experience. In the Sardinia region, RTI has already begun to broadcast Retequattro programmes in high definition, posting an excellent result. In particular, based on a statistical sample of Sardinian households, it emerged that, in a majority of cases, Retequattro HD replaced the SD version of the same channel in fourth position.

The spread of DTT
In 2008, digital terrestrial television continued with its expansion plan at a high pace. Research conducted by GFK - Eurisko revealed that in the January - December 2008 time span more than 5 million DTT decoders were sold, of which approximately 3.5 million were idTV integrated, increasing the total number of houselholds with a digital terrestrial decoder to slightly below 7.5 million. Retail prices of the cheapest interactive decoders remained steady at EUR 70 and 90% of the decoders purchased by Italian households support the DVB MHP 1.0.2 interactive standard and are equipped with smart card reader for the reception of pay services, including Mediaset Premium.
A range of factors have contributed to confirming the success of digital terrestrial television, including the expansion of the free and pay offer made by operators as well as the increased coverage of the existing multiplexes. In fact, both the total switch - off in the Sardinia region and the switching off of Raidue and Retequatttro analogue broadcasting in the Valle d'Aosta strongly contributed to the growth of digital terrestrial television. Moreover, the increased sales of television sets with built - in DTT tuners are also substantially upping the penetration of the digital terrestrial television. And the increased popularity of idTVs will become one of the major development drivers for DTT technology in the upcoming years. In particular, as mandated by law, all television sets sold starting from April 2009 will have built-in DTT tuners. This will lead to a natural adjustment to the new technology by Italian households, in anticipation of the switch-off scheduled for 2012.
According to the government calendar concerning switch-off deadlines, by the end of next year, more than 30% of Italian household will have shifted to digital terrestrial technology. In fact, in 2009 the transition to the digital technology is expected to be completed in different regions, including Western Piedmont (within September 2009), Lazio and Campania (by the end of 2009). This is the next important step in the digitalization process of terrestrial broadcasting by 2012.