News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch said on July 29 he was not interested in increasing News Corp’s stake in Italian pay-TV operator Stream from its current 35 per cent and denied that his media group is interested in buying Italian private broadcaster TMC.

Asked after a meeting in Rome with Telecom Italia CEO Roberto Colaninno and other major Stream shareholders if he was looking to raise News Corp Europe’s (NCE) stake, Murdoch replied: "We are satisfied with 35 per cent." NCE Chairman Letizia Moratti added that she was pleased with the stake in Stream: "We have a stake and we intend to keep it, hoping also that the others keep theirs." Colaninno, for his part, has said he wants to focus on core businesses, suggesting that he could seek to sell the group’s remaining stake. NCE, the Milan-based subsidiary of Murdoch’s global media empire, bought its stake in Stream from Telecom Italia in May. The other Stream shareholders are Italian media group Cecchi Gori (18 per cent) and SDS, a company set up by first division football clubs Fiorentina, Lazio, Parma and Roma (12 per cent).

During the Rome meeting, the shareholders underlined the "strategic role" of Stream in the "context of the development of digital TV in Italy" and considered the possibility of expanding cooperation with Telecom Italia’s subsidiaries responsible for the development of interactive broadband services. Eastern Europe and Spain were mentioned as potential areas for investment. Telecom Italia is already present in Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao, where it is participating in local digital cable and DTT projects. The shareholders expressed satisfaction with subscriber figures for Stream, which recorded a fourfold increase of new subscribers, meaning that the 200,000 mark will soon be reached.

The past two weeks brought other good news for Stream on the football front. Italy’s antitrust competition regulator ruled that rival Telepiu has violated a law limiting any one pay-TV operator to a 60 per cent slice of the rights to broadcast Italian first division football. Canal Plus-owned Telepiu has 61.1 per cent and the antitrust authority ordered it to relinquish 1.1 per cent, which is expected to be taken up by Stream. In practice, this decision means that Telepiu will have to give up the exclusive rights to four of the 17 games of the Reggina club (the last one to be signed) which will also be aired live on Stream.

Meanwhile, Italy’s telecommunications authority is expected soon to formally invite both Telepiu and Stream to reach a deal on the compatibility of their digital boxes, a move supported by the Lega Calcio (Italian Football League). The Lega Calcio feels that this would benefit not only potential subscribers, who would be able to use only digital box to access all football matches transmitted on pay-TV and PPV, but also the pay-TV operators themselves who could see an increase in subscriptions.