The probable auction for the assignment of television frequencies could yield the State an amount ranging from one billion to one and a half billion euros. Mediobanca predicted this through its "Morning news" titled this morning "Good bye beauty contest". According to Piazzetta Cuccia, after the success of the auction for new generation telephone frequencies, which yielded 4 billion euros to the treasury, the auction for frequencies will hardly end in failure.
The Bank's decision to proceed with an auction, shelving the beauty contest mechanism, was welcomed and judged consistent with the austerity measures approved by the government. Yesterday the Minister of Economic Development Corrado Passera returned to the matter, criticizing the choice of the previous government to grant free frequencies and thus opening the doors to the solution of the auction. The Minister's words had a negative effect on theperformance of the Mediaset share on the stock market.
