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MILAN — Italy’s communications watchdog AGCOM said on Tuesday it had opened an inquiry into French media giant Vivendi’s stakes in commercial broadcaster Mediaset and the country’s biggest phone group Telecom Italia (TIM).
Vivendi is TIM’s biggest shareholder with a 23.9% stake and Mediaset’s second-largest with a 28.8% holding although its voting rights in the broadcaster have been curbed to 10%.
AGCOM said in a statement it had launched a similar probe into SKY Italia’s telecoms and media assets. SKY, part of Comcast, is a major player in Italy’s pay-TV market and has recently launched its own broadband services.
Both inquiries would last four months, the regulator said.
Vivendi declined to comment. SKY did not respond to a request for a comment.
AGCOM’s inquiry could help Mediaset, controlled by the family of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in its battle against Vivendi as the French group tries to recover its voting rights for its full stake in the broadcaster.
The two groups have been at loggerheads since 2016 when Vivendi ditched an accord to buy Mediaset’s pay-TV unit and built its 29% stake, which Mediaset considers hostile.
Vivendi was forced to transfer two thirds of its voting rights in Mediaset into a trust after Italy’s communications watchdog ruled in 2017 that it had broken media plurality rules.
