A new Italian content provider which aims to provide an “on the road” service, from planning to broadcast, was launched on March 22. Channels & Co was founded in December 1999 by Italian TV and cinema post-production company Blue Gold and the Telepress news agency. The company will concentrate on production of free-to-air thematic channels, but is also planning to launch MHP-compatible multimedia trials, thanks to a co-operation agreement with Eutelsat. Channels & Co’s first production will be a fashion and lifestyle TV channel, which will launch by the beginning of 2001, contemporaneously with the start of new multimedia services.

The company will have at its disposal 30 TV crews scattered throughout Italy, 35 journalists in 15 cities, and three editorial centres in Milan, Rome and Naples, while a digital production and technological centre worth L20 billion (Euro 10 million) is being set up in the Milan suburb of Cologno Monzese.