Sky Italia wins Rai DTT victory

By
Guy Bisson

July 13, 2012

Sky Italia will regain access to Rai's channels after a victory in the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio, which ruled that the encryption of Rai channels on DTT and satellite was in breach of the broadcaster's public service obligations. The ruling ends a three-year dispute which saw Sky forced to send out USB plug-in DTT decoders to its customers to enable their boxes to continue to receive Rai channels. The public broadcaster encrypted its channels when it launched new Italian free-to-air satellite service Tivusat, a joint venture with Mediaset and Telecom Italia, designed to offer a satellite alternative to DTT platform Tivu. Rai had earlier withdrawn its RaiSat thematic channels from the Sky platform. With both moves pointing to a re purposing of the service as a low-tier competitor to Sky. Although Rai and Mediaset dominate the Italian market for TV advertising, Sky's growing prominence and increasing advertising share represented a direct assault on the broadcast groups' core business.

Although Sky Italia quickly introduced a work-around following the encryption of Rai channels, the heated dispute between Rai and Sky has seen Rai programme blackouts for Sky subscribers, with some coinciding with key sporting events. The new ruling makes clear that not only was the encryption of Rai channels in breach of Rai's public service role, but the original authorisation that Rai received to encrypt the channels from regulator AGCOM represented a form of illegitimate 'state aid' for the three shareholders of Tivusat. The ruling will not impact the RaiSat thematic channels. Two weeks ago Sky launched its new Sky Ondemand service saying at the time that, despite the economic crisis in Italy, it believed it could "grow a lot in the medium-long term" and would continue to invest to be ready for the recovery. Ending its spat with Rai will be a further plus.

Tags:

Countries: Italy
Companies: Sky Italia Rai