Good news for Mediaset on the front of the tv rights, while Vivendi leaves the door open to dialogue. The regional administrative Court of Lazio has upheld the appeal of the company of the Serpent, undoing the fine by the Antitrust authority for the assignment of television broadcasting rights of the football championship in the three-year period 2015-2018. A penalty that had been identified in 51.4 million euros. “The regional administrative court of Lazio definitively pronouncing on the appeal the welcomes, and for the effect, it cancels the contested decision as regards the penalty imposed i n respect of the applicants, Rti and Mediaset Premium”, reads the judgment.
The reconstruction is made by the Antitrust authority of the progress of the race for the rights to Serie A, according to which the natural outcome of the auction was distorted by Mediaset , Sky, Football League and Infront to pursue each their own interest “does not appear convincing under different profiles”, according to the judges of the regional court which have emphasised how it is not understandable why the Authority has waited eight months from the race “to start his powers,” while it had “since July 2014 all items to be able to immediately start an investigation similar to the one then the game only in February 2015″.
About the role of Eurosport, the court stated that “the third operator entered the competition, in addition to having made an offer less than the minimum for the package D (the one related to games of the minor league teams, ndr) is actually involved in the activities of the content provider and not an intermediary of broadcasting rights or television company”. In addition, it shows that Eurosport “could derive any benefit from a possible revival of the race.”
For the judges, then there are missing elements to believe that Eurosport would have had “a real opportunity to enter the market in question in order to compete effectively”. In the light of this, the solution is to assign both the packages of broadcasting rights to Sky (that is, both the satellite and the digital terrestrial tv, ndr) not “it seemed appropriate to allow a turning pro-competitive”.
The Agcom decision was reached last April when the Authority had been awarded fines total 60.4 million for the four subjects involved in the allocation of tv rights of the league series A. in Addition to Mediaset , be registered in the registry of the bad guys were Infront with a little over 9 million, Sky with 4 million, and the same Alloy, for which the amount was 1.9 million. In the evening the Antitrust laws, through a spokesman, has declared that will appeal against the decision of the Tar of Lazio”.
No reaction of the title Mediaset , after having doubled its value in a month, in Piazza Affari exchanges to share 3,99 euro, down 0.15%. Yesterday Vivendi , up to 29,94% of the voting rights of the group (28,8% of the share capital), taking a step from the threshold of the mandatory tender offer obligation. If the group led by Vincent Bolloré will not stop climbing, the launch of a tender offer will be inevitable.
“at this time, neither Vivendi nor Japan are able to buy more shares without falling into the obligation of a pa, or have pointed out the analysts of Banca Akros (rating neutral target price is 3.5 euro confirmed) that they believe, and then, exhausted, the rise of the title, considering now the fair price.
However, the battle you’re fighting on multiple fronts: in the last days of the Berlusconi family has filed a complaint to Consob, asking to ascertain whether or not the manoeuvre of the French may constitute a market manipulation and abuse of privileged information. After listening to yesterday, the Cfo of Mediaset , Marco Giordani, the technicians of the Consob were confronted with the Nra, which turned Mediaset .
While today it is touched to the ceo of Vivendi , Arnaud de Puyfontaine, to meet at Rome, the commissioners of the Consob, confirming the absolute availability of the giant French “to cooperate and provide any clarifications, in the spirit of full transparency” about the recent purchases of the stock exchange. If “Vivendi has begun to build strong ties with these fantastic Italian companies,” added de Puyfontaine, “we did it because we feel Italian as we feel the French. We have a common history, we have a common dna, a culture of romance”.
The idea of building “a group of the pan-european, in the south of Europe”, according to the ceo, is “a very attractive” and you should “remain positive on the possibility of this happening”, because “it would be a great news for all italians and French”. de Puyfontaine has also recalled that he “always said she wanted to reach an agreement, and now that we are seconds to the shareholders, there are many more reasons why we should find an agreement” with the leadership of Mediaset .
Remain to be evaluated, however, the stakes in legal. In particular, compliance with the Gasparri law. An appendix of the single Text of the audiovisual media services and radio stations, in fact, prohibits undertakings of electronic communications that hold in the Italian market with a share above 40% gain in revenues in excess of 10% of the integrated system of communications (tv, radio, publishing), the so-called Sic.
From here the joint: Vivendi the current state also holds 23.8 percent of Telecom Italia , item that could prevent the major entertainment in paris, keep a package of qualified shares in Mediaset . In case the Authority to recognize the current position of Vivendi a situation not in conformity with the regulatory framework, the group would be forced to take steps back or on Mediaset or on Telecom Italia’s , but the general opinion is that hardly Bolloré let you go the colossus tlc.
No comments:
Post a Comment