The CEO and VP of Italy’s Mediaset, Pier Silvio Berlusconi (son of the former Italian President and Trump-inspirer, Silvio Berlusconi), has gone on record to predict that the future of television lies in FTA and VoD content, and not traditional pay TV.
Berlusconi made the comments during a World Cup 2018 presentation — Mediaset holds the rights to broadcast the competition in Italy and Spain.
The company is investigating potential partnerships with a range of providers, including ITV, Netflix, ProSieben and TF1. Berlusconi also mentioned that its own pay TV unit will be moving to “a lighter model, like over-the-top”, with a renewed focus on movies and TV over sports.
