Al Jazeera Media Networks is reportedly considering an investment in the Mediaset Premium pay-TV arm of Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset. Sheikh Ali Bin Thamer Al Thani, a member of Qatar’s ruling family the financial backers of Al Jazeera told reporters “anything is possible” at an event in Palermo on Thursday (26 June). This […]
Al Jazeera Media Networks is reportedly considering an investment in the Mediaset Premium pay-TV arm of Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset.
Sheikh Ali Bin Thamer Al Thani, a member of Qatar’s ruling family the financial backers of Al Jazeera told reporters “anything is possible” at an event in Palermo on Thursday (26 June).
This followed his comment a day earlier, in Milan, that “Mediaset is a big company and a great opportunity for us … we’re evaluating the possibility in different ways”.
The debt-ridden MediaSet Premium, which is owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, serves more than two million subscribers. Mediaset also owns 22% of Spanish pay-TV platform Digital+.
An injection of capital would help Mediaset Premium mount a more serious challenge to Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia when negotiating top flight football rights.
Al Jazeera’s sports network beIN Sports has expanded in the past two years from its original base in the Middle East and North Africa to global territories including France, US, Canada, Indonesia, Thailand and Hong Kong.
