Mediaset

Finally, another story of consolidation is that of ProSiebenSat1 and Italy's Media for Europe, or MFE, the Berlusconi family-owned conglomerate that took a 75% stake in the German media giant a year ago.

The two parties shared a stand at MIPCOM for the first time this year and are exploring a merger of their three distribution arms, Munich and London-based 7-1 Studios International, Milan-based Mediaset Distribution and Madrid's Mediterraneo, as well as the combination of ProSiebenSat1's own streamer Join with Mediaset's Spanish service Infinity.

ProSieben Sat.1's Henrik Paps and MFE's Giacomo Poletti spoke to Nico about these changes and the broader dynamics sweeping the international TV industry right now.

My name is Henrik Paps, I'm the Chief Content Officer of ProSieben Sat.1 and I'm the CEO of 7.1 Studios, the production arm of ProSieben Sat.1. I'm

But we clearly divide between cooperation where it makes sense, like IT, tech, sales, so where you can scale, but we keep local content for the audiences where we are best in the selected markets.

And that's been the whole ambition behind Media for Europe.

So previously known as Mediaset, owned by the Berlusconi family, real ambitions to make a kind of pan-European

media group.

So they lost all the revenue that was expected from that TV deal.

There were also other teams that had made a deal with Mediaset, the TV owned by the Berlusconi family.

So it was very, very different.

Berlusconi, that's

Mm

... historically, 'cause Berlusconi own Mediaset, right? Juventus own half of Italy, so that-

Listen, listen, listen, listen

...

Fiat, financially doped Juventus.

Mediaset, financially doped AC Milan.

But the difference is, anyone can be financially doped.

Pablo Escobar, financially doped clubs in Medellin.