Last year, at the end of February, a cloud took concrete shape that was destined to remain in the skies of Italy for a long time. This is the takeover bid launched by Ei Tower, a Mediaset-owned company in charge of managing the radio and television transmission networks, towards Rai Way, a Rai Group company with the same business, listed on the Italian Stock Exchange a few months earlier. This cloud is given a name: single pole of the towers.
Since then, apparently, little significant has happened and the topic continues to remain on the agenda without significant news. Only apparently, however, because in truth something is moving among the major subjects interested in the subject and this cloud is going straight towards another no less important one.
This second cloud has a name and a timetable for action: it is called the Lamy Report on the redistribution of radio and television frequencies currently in use around 700 Mhz, it was drawn up by the European Commission and should unfold its effects starting from 2020. One can well imagine that such a close date appears particularly threatening for national broadcast operators while, conversely, it opens up new and significant opportunities for TLC operators.
In this first episode we will try to outline the broad lines that define the framework of what is observed in the market for television signal transmission towers in the light of what may happen in the near future where the financial aggregations between various national and European operators are going to intertwine with the new Community regulations.
First of all, it should be remembered that these are two distinct systems of towers: the first concerns those intended for the broadcasting of radio and television signals and the second the others, through which the signals of telecommunications operators pass. These are two systems that, at the moment, coexist with each other without apparent disturbances, at least from a technological point of view. How much longer? Until when will a system necessarily have to be subordinated to another?
Pole of the towers and 700 Mhz are therefore two dossiers inevitably destined to overlap and over Italy seen from the top of these pylons we can glimpse thunderstorms and not even insignificant ones.
The picture is complex and above all concerns the consumption of audiovisual products, both in terms of the public and in terms of technology. The most recent surveys on TV audiences confirm a by now unstoppable trend: television is increasingly consumed in a different way from the traditional model.
The composition of viewers has changed: in the composition of age groups, times of use and viewing methods. Everyone, in particular the public aged around 30-35, builds their own schedule through the tablet, PC or smartphone which, as is well known, do not need a television signal as much as a WiFi connection or a fiber network optics.
As regards specifically the consumption of TV, as mentioned above, a seemingly simple question arises: in the next few years we will still see TV programs through DTT (digital terrestrial) or a perfect storm is about to hit the broadcast system capable of to mess everything up? This question, in the first instance, cannot be indifferent to the shareholders of the listed companies that manage the assets of the television signal transmission towers.
If the thunderbolt of a radical overhaul of the national broadcast system were ever struck and a new technological process were to be started where, just to be clear, the current "high-altitude" broadcasting towers were no longer necessary and, on the contrary, would be sufficient a capillary network of small towers well distributed throughout the country, the current prevailing business model, and consequently the value of the shares, could hardly remain unscathed.
Always remaining in the meteorological metaphor: someone instead, from the height of his observation point, prepares the umbrellas and prepares the business even in case of rain and indeed, glimpses new development prospects. Others, however, seem to be watching.
At the recent meeting in Cernobbio, Rai General Manager Antonio Campo Dell'Orto declared and reaffirmed an already known concept in relation to what is happening in the broadcast tower market: "Rai Way has no negotiations in progress". The majority shareholder of the listed company of the Rai group, it is not clear how much deliberately, he did not want, or was able, to enter into the merits of what instead other subjects, Ei Towers in the lead, are operating to face the bad weather see beyond the clouds. But, evidently, the issue is not so much in its availability as more in the hands of its shareholder: the Government.
A correct industrial logic of the country would have it that, sooner or later, the Polo delle Torri must necessarily be built for efficiency, productivity and convenience. On this point, it seems, there should be no doubts. At most it is a matter of seeing which model to inspire, for example the French one. In recent months, the Undersecretary for TLC, Antonello Giacomelli, declared that "If there are industrial projects capable of unifying the management of towers, whether they are TLC or digital terrestrial, we have no objections... We only put a a fixed point that must be present in every project that must have our approval: public control”.
From what we can understand, an apparent neutrality shines through which is worth interpreting. First of all the role of Rai Way, a listed company with majority capital owned by Rai. After the resignation of Camillo Rossotto, who had expressed very clear ideas on the subject: “When the towers are on the market, they become a new interlocutor for us with whom we can interact for any convergences. That (referring to Telecom, ed) is the best telco infrastructure, we are the best broadcast infrastructure”, implying that it was a question of the future where the nodes were the times and methods.
Instead, at the recent Shareholders' Meeting last April, where Raffaello Agrusti was appointed as the new Chairman of Rai Way, who also holds the position of CFO Rai, no news emerged on the subject. One can well imagine, even when reiterated by DG Rai, that the Company's hands are tied to act on the market until the majority shareholder gives the go-ahead.
However, it seems very strange that while all the other competitors are particularly active in the market and aware that, willy-nilly, this single pole of towers will be built sooner or later, only Rai Way remains in the window to watch time go by. Certainly, we can imagine, it's not like that and the CEO of the Company, Stefano Ciccotti, has far-reaching ideas and projects expressed several times, both on technological innovations that interest him, and on hypothetical M&A operations. Will he have the space, the way, the time to carry out ambitious projects?
The new autumn season has just begun. We'll see what can be glimpsed from the top of the towers in the coming weeks.
