In the first four months of 2016, Mediaset's advertising sales in Italy grew by 4,5% compared to the same period last year and the month of April alone recorded a "double-digit, around 10%" increase. This was stated by Pier Silvio Berlusconi, vice president and managing director of Mediaset, on the sidelines of the shareholders' meeting. “The data we have makes us look forward with optimism,” he added.
The CEO then announced that in the 2016 financial statements, the sale of Premium to Vivendi will result in "a nice capital gain" for Mediaset. The entrepreneur denied that pay-TV has weighed on Alfa's accounts in recent years: "Just by removing the cost of the bandwidth that we would have had to pay anyway, the difference between Premium's costs and revenues in recent years is 244 million: today we bring home 750 million (from the sale to the French) so you do the math".
There is “no dowry to Vivendi in the operation – he continued – the value of Premium is that: double that of RCS? Double the Espresso? Double Mondadori? When Premium was created it had 100 million cash inside which is part of its value”. On the trend of the pay-TV business, Berlusconi then underlined: “The Champions League rights cost 605 million in three years and the Champions League will probably be profitable already in the first year. Subscribers are over 2 million”. The entrepreneur then stated that "in the first months of 2016" Premium's revenues increased by 20% compared to a year ago.
"My family's desire to remain in publishing, both in TV and in print media, is absolute", he concluded.
