Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset has signed a strategic partnership with Telecom Italia (TIM) under which content offered through its pay-television service Mediaset Premium, including Serie A and Uefa Champions League football, will be distributed by the telco.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed but it will allow fixed and mobile TIM consumer customers to access the whole of Mediaset’s ‘Premium Online’ service from September. With Premium Online, all the content of the Mediaset Premium service will be available via the internet for the first time – live, on-demand and in HD – across all devices.
An app will be created and built in to make the service directly available on televisions through the TIMvision set-top-box as well as through smart televisions and mobile devices. The two parties said the partnership aims to be a driver for the development of ultra-broadband in Italy.
Marco Giordani, chief executive of Mediaset, said: “It is a first major step towards the creation of the much sought-after triple/quadruple play offer, which will truly integrate contents and technology. An innovation that in Italy can also change the consumer experience in terms of the convenience and efficiency of the service and in terms of cost.”
The partnership comes after Mediaset Premium acquired exclusive rights to the NFL American football league last week in a three-year deal, from 2015 to 2017.