Sales 2023: € 3.715 billion

Overview

The core of the Fininvest holding is 50 percent of the television/cinema group MFE-MediaForEurope (originally Mediaset; MFE since November 2021) and Italy's leading publishing group Mondadori (53.3 percent). The Italian first division football club Monza AC is also part of the group. The founder of Fininvest was the extremely successful entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi (1936-2023): legendary, corrupt, accused many times. Also four-time Italian Prime Minister.

An updated, complete company profile will be published shortly.

General Information

Headquarters:
MFE
Viale Europa 46
20093 Cologno Monzese (Milano)
Italy
e-mail: investor.relations@mfemediaforeurope.eu
Internet: www.mfemediaforeurope.com/en/, http://www.fininvest.it

Mondadori
Via privata Mondadori 1
20054 Segrate (Milano)
Italy
Telephone: 0039 02 75421

Branches of trade:: TV stations, TV and film production, radio, online services, advertising, book publishers
Legal form: Stock Company
Financial year: 1.1. – 31.12.
Founding year: 1907 Mondadori, 1978 Fininvest, 1978 TeleMilano, 1995 Mediaset, 2021 renamed MFE-MediaForEurope

Basic economic data (amounts in million €)

	2023	2022
Fininvest turnover	3.715	3.704
MFE turnover	2.810	2.801
Profit MFE (without ProSiebenSat.1 contribution)	217,5	184,7
MFE share price (in €, year-end)	2,36	1,81
MFE employees	4.889	n/a
Mondadori's turnover	904,7	903

Executives and Directors

Management:

• Fedele Confalonieri, President
• Pier Silvio Berlusconi, Executive Vice President
• Giuliano Adreani, CEO

Board of Directors:

• Fedele Confalonieri
• Pier Silvio Berlusconi
• Giuliano Adreani
• Marina Berlusconi
• Franco Bruni
• Pasquale Cannatelli
• Mauro Crippa
• Bruno Ermolli
• Marco Giordani
• Fernando Napolitano
• Gina Nieri
• Michele Perini
• Alessandra Piccinino
• Niccolò Querci
• Stefano Sala
• Carlo Secchi
• Wanda Ternau

History and Profile

The unprecedented campaign of conquest by Milan property developer Silvio Berlusconi in the Italian media business began rather casually on September 24, 1974 in a small shop in the modern satellite town of Milano 2, just outside the gates of the Lombardy financial metropolis. The TV offer developed there served as an additional sales argument for the real estate entrepreneur's sales department, and the origin of the self-made entrepreneur's immense financial resources remains partly unknown to this day. Berlusconi's desire to expand his sphere of action beyond the real estate business first became apparent in 1977. He joined the Milan daily newspaper "Il Giornale" run by the renowned journalist Indro Montanelli, which was in financial difficulties.

The decisive turning point came in 1978: Berlusconi decided to broadcast the cable program TeleMilano terrestrially from now on. Two years earlier, the Roman Constitutional Court had revoked the broadcasting monopoly of the state television company RAI lifted and commercial television was permitted. The liberalization of the airwaves came with two restrictions: private broadcasters were not allowed to broadcast nationwide or live. Berlusconi handed over the management of the construction company Edilnord to his younger brother and from then on devoted himself to building an integrated television empire together with his closest colleagues, including the current Mediaset boss Fedele Confalonieri.
All of the entrepreneur's activities are brought together under the umbrella holding company Fininvest. The only real competitor to the three channels of the public broadcaster RAI is the Fininvest founder's three broadcasting networks. Within just six years, the group's focus has shifted completely from the construction to the television business. The uncontrolled growth in the electronic media landscape has created a duopoly of the state-owned RAI and the commercial television monopolist Fininvest, which controls 90 percent of the Italian TV market. There is no room for other competitors.

The media prince is assured of support from the highest political authorities in his unprecedented expansion. It was not until 1990, 14 years after the launch of private television, that a media law ended the era of total anarchy on the Italian airwaves. The antitrust regulations, however, were tailor-made for Berlusconi and led to the consolidation of the concentration that had developed. In 1991, after a bitter takeover battle, Fininvest also gained control of Italy's largest book and magazine publisher, Mondadori. Two years later, the heavily indebted group was on the verge of bankruptcy. In the autumn of 1993, the creditor banks pushed through the appointment of top manager and proven turnaround expert Franco Tatò to the top job at Fininvest.
At the same time, Berlusconi is making preparations for the start of his political career. He founds the "Forza Italia" party, making extensive use of his corporate structures. In the spring of 1994, Berlusconi is elected prime minister, but his heterogeneous right-wing coalition only manages to hold on to power in Rome for seven months. He and leading members of his company also have to stand trial on suspicion of corruption, falsification of accounts and tax evasion.

In 1995, all television activities were finally brought together in the newly founded subsidiary Mediaset, which was listed on the stock exchange in 1996. Thanks to its monopoly position in Italian private television, Mediaset is now one of the most profitable TV groups in the world. The internationalization efforts of the Italian "king of the airwaves" were less successful, apart from the majority shareholding in the profitable Spanish broadcaster Telecinco. The cross-shareholding agreed in 1999 with the Munich media group Kirch also became the grave for almost 400 million euros. In 2001, Berlusconi was elected Italian Prime Minister for the second time. He had already given up official leadership of the Mediaset group, but the obvious conflict of interest was still the subject of fierce criticism. As head of government, Berlusconi can determine the personnel policy of the state-owned RAI broadcasters and at the same time controls the reporting of his "own" broadcasters. The liberal journalist Enzo Biagi, for example, had to leave RAI after he fell out of favour with Berlusconi. The writer and philosopher Umberto Eco describes the mechanisms of the "media regime" in the television news as follows: "When a law under discussion is presented, the opposition's objections are raised first, and these are then immediately refuted by representatives of the government. The result is predictable: he who speaks last is right. A media regime does not need to put the opposition in prison. You silence them by being the first to voice their arguments." Nevertheless, even massive spinning could not prevent Berlusconi from being voted out of office as prime minister in 2006. But the media tycoon returned to power, strengthened, in the early elections on April 13, 2008. 

In 2008, Mediaset managed to break free from the negative trend in the TV industry. In the crisis years after 2001, Mediaset was already unscathed by the economic downturn and advertising slump. While RAI and Italy's press again recorded significant declines in revenue last year, Mediaset benefited from the reallocation of advertising budgets by major Italian corporations such as Barilla, Telecom Italia and Fiat, which increased their investments in Mediaset at the expense of state television RAI. Government-controlled state-owned companies such as the post office and the energy company ENI also noticeably increased their advertising investments on Berlusconi's channels. All in all, Mediaset increased its turnover in 2008 by 4.2 percent to 4.2 billion euros and only had to accept a slight reduction in its impressive profits. Gross profit fell by five percentage points in 2008 compared to the previous year, to 23.2%. It seems that Berlusconi's government power is acting as a parachute for Mediaset even in the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s.   

In 1978, TeleMilano, the nucleus of today's TV group, goes on air. In 1995, Mediaset is founded, bringing together the television and advertising activities of Silvio Berlusconi's corporate empire (Fininvest). In 1996, Mediaset goes public on the Milan stock exchange.

management

Silvio Berlusconi has achieved an unprecedented level of economic, media and political power. Since 1994, Italy's richest man has not shied away from using his TV dominance to gain government power. As head of the executive, Berlusconi determines the guidelines of the television business. Through a broad parliamentary majority, he directly controls Mediaset's only competitor until recently, the public broadcaster RAI. And he remains the majority owner of a highly profitable TV empire. The monoculture not only harms democracy, it has also led to a steady decline in the quality of programming in Italy, where viewers are mostly offered a mixture of shallow shows, prize draws, violent films, reality shows, reruns, Hollywood productions and cartoons.

Italy's television landscape is an exception. The Italian private TV monopolist enjoys a very comfortable position of dominance: Mediaset absorbs 58 percent of all advertising investments in the Italian TV market and achieved an average audience share of 38.8 percent in 2009. In fact, Mediaset does not need to fear any competitive offensives from its tamed rival; there is no battle for the viewers' favor with RAI. Mediaset is sticking to its traditional strategy: consolidate the market share in Italy and generate high returns - that is the motto at Berlusconi's TV headquarters in Cologno Monzese near Milan. Mediaset is recently trying to counter the strong expansion of Murdoch's Italian subsidiary Sky Italia in pay TV by setting up its own pay TV offerings under the brand name Mediaset Premium.

Since Berlusconi entered politics in 1994, the patient and diplomatic Fedele Confalonieri has held the reins of the multi-billionaire's corporate empire. The company, which was previously run autocratically and was tailored to the charismatic founder, has since been more strongly influenced by managers such as Mediaset CEO Giuliano Adreani. Berlusconi's true representative, however, is Confalonieri, whom the company calls "lo Zio" (the uncle). The fact that Berlusconi did not sell Mediaset to Rupert Murdoch in 1999 after negotiations were well advanced is attributed to the veto of his adult children and Confalonieri's persistent resistance. The Berlusconi family has a strong influence in the company: son Pier Silvio is a member of Mediaset's executive committee as vice president, daughter Marina is president of the umbrella holding company Fininvest and the publishing house Mondadori and is considered the most influential woman in the Italian economy. Recently, the children from his second marriage - Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi Berlusconi - have gradually moved into company committees. Berlusconi's second wife, Veronica Lario, is the publisher of the daily newspaper "Il Foglio". Berlusconi's younger brother Paolo was appointed publisher of the daily newspaper "Il Giornale" in 1990.

Business segments

Television
The core business of media billionaire Berlusconi is advertising-financed television with its three national, free-to-air TV channels Canale 5, Italia 1 and Retequattro. In Spain, Mediaset controls the market leader Telecinco with 50.5% of the shares. The channel has been listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange since 2004. In 2008, Mediaset, together with Berlusconi's friend Tarak Ben Ammar, took over 50% of the young Tunisian TV channel Nessma TV, whose radius of action is to be expanded to include the neighboring North African countries. RTI Interactive Media (100%) is dedicated to new media and produces content for the Internet, videotext and mobile phones. 
The strategy of relying on US imports made the Mediaset channels big in the 1980s. Entertainment shows and American film formats still dominate the programs of the Italian commercial television monopolist today. In 2008, 37.6% of the programs broadcast were self-produced. The flagship channel Canale 5 specializes in popular entertainment programs - such as "C'è posta per te", "Amici", "Zelig" and "Big Brother". With an average audience rating of 21.9%, Canale 5 is Italy's market leader. Retequattro offers many films and soap operas. Italia 1 mainly broadcasts series. According to Mediaset, the proportion of information programs in the broadest sense is 18%.
 
Advertising
The wholly owned subsidiary Publitalia 80 is Mediaset's exclusive advertising time marketer. Publitalia controls 58% of the Italian TV advertising market. According to industry service Nielsen Media Research, Publitalia has a share of 35.7% of the entire Italian advertising market (2007 data). 

Production/Rights Trading/Network
RTI operates the three television channels Canale 5, Italia 1 and Retequattro. It also controls the programme producer Videotime with three production centres in Milan and Rome and several regional studios (98,39 %), the rights dealer Mediatrade (100 %) and the broadcasting network operator Elettronica Industriale (100 %). In May 2007, Mediaset took over Europe's largest independent TV production company Endemol. The company, with headquarters in the Netherlands and offices in 25 countries, produces over 15,000 hours of broadcasting per year, including "Big Brother". Endemol's library includes 1,400 TV formats, from series to soap operas, reality shows, game shows and talk shows.

New Media
The area of new media is covered by the subsidiary RTI Interactive Media. It is responsible for the online presence www.mediaset.it, the teletext of the television channels, e-commerce, the WAP services and TGcom. TGcom is an online portal with journalistic content, but it is still treated rather poorly. Overall, Mediaset's involvement in the new media has remained manageable.

commitment in Germany

Mediaset is only represented on the German market through its advertising subsidiary Publitalia 80, whose customer is the private television group ProSiebenSat.1. At the end of 2006, Mediaset was interested in buying ProSiebenSat.1 The broadcasting group was sold to financial investors KKR and Permira in January 2007. A possible involvement of Berlusconi in the German television market had caused unease among media politicians.

In November 2008, the Italian media magnate, through his financial holding company Fininvest, invested a good 31% in the pay-TV channel Sky, which was owned by Rupert Murdoch's media group News Corp. is controlled.

Current developments

The economic downturn in Italy and the crisis in Spain caused Mediaset to suffer further setbacks in 2011 and 2012. Group sales fell by 16 percent during this period. As Berlusconi also had to deal with the consequences of the recession in spring 2015, his Fininvest holding company sold seven percent of its shares and thus raised 377 million euros.

In order to remain competitive, Mediaset paid 700 million euros in February 2014 for the broadcasting rights for the Champions League from 2015 to 2018 (for the pay-TV channel Premium). Due to the high price, Mediaset may be forced to open up to foreign investors. The satellite channel Sky Italia, a Milan-based offshoot of Rupert Murdoch's US media group News Corp., which was launched in 2003, has now grown into a real competitor for Berlusconi's TV group. With 190 specialty channels and 4.9 million subscribers (March 2011), Sky quickly expanded its market position in Italy in just a few years. Sales on the Italian market tripled in six years to 2.7 billion euros, allowing the pay-TV channel to overtake Mediaset in its home market. With major football, Hollywood blockbusters and theme channels, the subscription broadcaster won over especially the consumption-oriented, affluent and young viewers in the wealthy north of the country. Sky specifically poached ratings drivers from Mediaset.

The success of competitor Sky has brought movement to the ossified Italian television landscape. President Confalonieri is undaunted: "Our core business remains free-to-air television, in which we continue to invest." But the realization that the traditional TV market in Italy is overripe and consumption is becoming increasingly fragmented is now apparently prompting Mediaset's top management to take the risk of competing with themselves with premium offers. The erosion of its monopoly position in private television is now clearly evident. The television magnate is losing viewers in droves. From the ratings record of 2003, when 45% of the television audience tuned in to its three channels, Mediaset lost seven percentage points by 2010. Of course, this led to the end of the non-aggression pact that Berlusconi had once made with his old friend and ally Rupert Murdoch. At the end of 2008, the head of government cancelled a VAT reduction on satellite subscriptions that had originally been introduced for his own benefit. This doubled the tax rate from 10% to 20%. Sky Italia had already lodged a complaint with the EU Commission in Brussels after the "Lex Gasparri" against Rome's media policy on the grounds of distortion of competition. For example, the distribution of decoders for terrestrial digital television was subsidized by the state. In 2010, the European Court of Justice ordered Mediaset to repay 220 million euros in subsidies it had received.

Meanwhile, Silvio Berlusconi is threatened with prosecution for illegal activities and tax evasion at Mediaset in the 1990s. The public prosecutor accuses Berlusconi of having artificially increased costs in the sale of television rights.

organizational chart

Further reading

» Paul Ginsborg, Berlusconi, 2005

Left

» Annual Reports
» Press releases
» RAI in the media database

News

05/23/12 / Mediaset SpA, RAI Radiotelevisione Italia

Italy: Economy and Media in Transition

01/19/11 / Grupo PRISA, Mediaset SpA

Dossier: Restructuring at Grupo Prisa

10/13/09 / RAI Radiotelevisione Italia, Mediaset SpA

Berlusconi: Propaganda initiative against foreign press

Last change: 25.01.2024 14:28 | Author(s): Employees: Alexander Matschke/ Ulrike Sauer