RAI – RADIOTELEVISIONE ITALIANA/BUSINESS SPINOFFS
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
THE COMPETITION AUTHORITY HAS BEGUN AN INVESTIGATION INTO RAI'S ACQUISITIONS FOR DIGITAL BROADCASTING
At its meeting on 15 January 2004 the Competition Authority resolved to commence an investigation into RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana S.p.A., Emilia Tv S.r.l.S.u., Rete 7 S.p.A., Teletime S.r.l., Video Puglia S.r.l., Edivision S.p.A., Telecolor International TCI S.p.A., Sige S.p.A., Teleliguria S.r.l., Radiotelevisione di Campione S.p.A., MIT S.r.l. abd TGR - TeleGrosseto S.r.l.. The purpose of the investigation is to see whether RAI has acquired a dominant position on the national networks and infrastructure markets for domestic terrestrial television broadcasting.
The operations at issue consist of the acquisition by RAI of business spinoffs from the aforementioned companies, comprising television broadcasting facilities and their frequencies. The acquisitions were made by RAI in order to be able to carry out digital broadcasting and digital services test transmissions using terrestrial frequencies.
The operations are part of a single Project, designed to create two terrestrial digital (multiplex) networks. In Italy, unlike the situation in the other European countries, the development of the television broadcasting networks market has taken place in a disorderly manner: RAI and Mediaset have a stock of broadcasting frequencies and facilities at their disposal, giving them three television networks covering virtually the whole of the country and the national population. RAI has the largest number of frequencies, with a far greater average availability for each of the three national channels (RAI1, RAI2 and RAI3) than the number provided in the national frequency allocation Plan for analog television broadcasting, which could entail major coverage redundancies for these television networks.
In the opinion of the Authority, these acquisitions could give RAI a dominant position on the national terrestrial television broadcasting infrastructure and networks markets. For it would enable RAI to further increase the number of its frequencies and broadcasting facilities. This makes it necessary to appraise these operations also from the point of view of RAI's increased transmission capacity in terms of the number of television networks offered.
The investigation will be completed within 45 days.
Rome, 16 January 2004