03/04/2003

The EU has given the go ahead for the merger between Stream and Tele+. The informal green light from the commission, which is subject to certain conditions, was given yesterday by the heads of the EU ministerial staff. The official announcement on the setup of Sky Italia should be made tomorrow. The operation run by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp was referred to the European Union institution for fair competition and has already received a favourable reaction from the Anti-Trust consultative committee, made up of experts from the 15 European member countries.
The newly formed Sky Italia will start off with 4 million subscribers, a Euro 750m turnover and Euro 700million losses, and with one subscription it will be able to offer: all the football matches from the A and B leagues starting from the next championship, Formula 1 racing (brought in by Tele+) and the major tennis tournaments, plus all the themed channels, from cinema to kids channels.

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(Translated from Italian)