Telecom Italia-Sky partnership to go live in April

Telecom Italia’s wholesale TV deal with Sky is due to go live in April, allowing Telecom Italia customers to gain access the full Sky television offer through its high-speed broadband network.

Speaking on Telecom Italia’s fourth quarter earnings call, company CEO Marco Patuano said that Sky will provide a set-top box for the internet TV offering and that the non-exclusive deal means “we will have the same content that Sky will have.”

The deal, which was first announced in April 2014, will see the companies co-operate on a revenue sharing basis, with the agreement allowing Sky to reach potential pay TV subscribers who are unable to install a satellite dish.

Speaking more broadly about the pay TV opportunity in Italy, Patuano said that this market was still “under-penetrated” with just 25% of homes subscribing to pay TV, compared to between 50% and 60% in the UK and France.

He said there was opportunity to target broadband subscribers with “some form of premium content television or premium content entertainment.”

However, Patuano added that “we have no space for making huge discounts, in order to move customers to convergence, even if the effect on the churn rate is positive.”