Sky, the international satellite TV network owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, has launched its predicted new service in Italy. Sky Italia was created from a merger between Stream Television, jointly owned by News Corp and Telecom Italia, and the Telepiu network, which Murdoch’s media empire recently acquired from Vivendi Universal/Canal Plus.
Sky Italia will offer more channels than the previous Stream and Telepiu services combined, as well as a dedicated news channel, Sky TG24. Sky Italia is 80.1 per cent owned by News Corp, with the remaining 19.9 per cent held by Telecom Italia. Murdoch sais in June that he hoped to quickly attract three million Italian customers, and aimed to win over 10 million customers in the long term.
Although News Corp will take a a loss for the creation of Sky Italia, the TV-to-newspapers media giant sees strong growth ahead.