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TS News - MTV Announces Big Italy Plans
TELE-satellit News, 25 April 1997
MTV Announces Big Italy Plans
ROME, Italy, 97/04/25 (TS) -- In a surprising development, the 24-hour
satellite music channel MTV has announced that from September 1st, it will
be available via terrestrial transmitters throughout Italy. MTV will
broadcast its programs via Rete A, a nationwide TV channel owned by editor
Alberto Peruzzo and which has until now been showing information and
shopping TV programs.
Peruzzo will keep a 30-min slot a day which will be reserved for
information. This deal means that Italy will be the only country in Europe
where MTV's programs can be seen via a non-pay-TV network. According to
some market analysts, the deal between Peruzzo and MTV Networks is said to
be worth around 35 million DEM. Up till now, MTV's programs have been
transmitted terrestrially and unscrambled, 11 hours a day thanks to the
Tele+3 channel. It is very probable that the existing accord for
terrestrial retransmission between MTV and Telepiu will be canceled, and
there is a big question mark over the future of MTV as part of Telepiu's
digital satellite service.
MTV has also announced that the man in charge of the new venture will be
Antonio Campo dell'Orto who previously worked at Berlusconi's Canale 5. He
has already announced that MTV Italy will daily transmit 4-5 hours a day of
programming which will be produced in Milan. MTV Italy like the other MTV
regional services will be primarily aimed at viewers in the 15-35 age
group. The signal of Rete A currently covers only 60% of the Italian
peninsula (around 11 million households) but it is hoping to expand its
coverage after the new Telecommunications bill is passed in the Italian
Parliament.
By: Branislav Pekic
(c)TELE-satellit 1997. All rights reserved.
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