Leading Italian terrestrial commercial broadcaster Mediaset has launched an action movie channel called Duel TV and a comedy channel called Comedy Life on Stream’s digital satellite platform.

The launch of the two new channels represents a major step for Mediaset which hopes to become a full-fledged pay-TV content provider. The broadcaster already produces an entertainment channel called Happy Channel on rival digital platform Telepiu and is planning to launch a news and information channel in December on Stream. Speaking at a Milan press conference on March 29, the president of Mediaset’s Mediadigit unit Michele Preda said the company intends to become a large-scale pay-TV content provider in Italy and Europe.

The new Mediaset channels were launched on April 1, together with four other channels (National Geographic Channel, Fox Kids, CFN and Snai Sat) which will be added to Stream’s basic package. Three premium channels (Cinema Stream, Cine Movie and Sport Stream) will launch on April 15. According to Stream director general Giovanni Minoli, the addition of the new channels shows a “desire on the behalf of the shareholders to invest in Stream”. However, subscribers will now have to fork out L24,000 (Euro 12.40) a month for the basic package, instead of L19,000. Minoli also said that Stream has fulfilled its goal of signing up 500,000 subscribers in eight months, and that priority will be given to boosting the film and sports offer. He revealed that Stream is also gambling on a third asset – adult movies. Stream’s rival, Telepiu D+ already offers adult movies on its PPV service Palco and Stream disposes of the same technology, having been the first in Italy to introduce PPV services with Prima fila.