Sky Italia sees ‘enormous’ growth opportunities

Sky Italia’s CEO Tom Mockridge sees further room for growth opportunities in the country and has dismissed talk of ‘war’ with rival Mediaset.

In an interview with newspaper Corriere della Sera, Mockridge said “there is enormous space to grow” in Italy, where pay-TV penetration remains low compared with the US, UK and France. He said that while the company had no plans to broadcast its channels via the country’s digital terrestrial network, due to lack of capcity for HD channels, it would look to expand its broadband distribution.

He also said that despite press reports that Mediaset’s owner, Silvio Berlusconi, defined Sky as ‘an enemy’ and his son Pier Silvio had used the term ‘war’ whilst referring to the competition between the two companies, competition was healthy. “In reality, I continue to believe that you are dealing with only competition between two companies, of healthy competition on content, on offers, on business models,” he said.