Media tycoons Silvio Berlusconi and Rupert Murdoch have for a long time done battle with each other. It finally came to a head when Murdoch’s News Corp. filed suit against Berlusconi’s Publitalia and RTI, the advertising arm and television operations arm this week.
The suits charge that the companies distorted competition in the television sector by refusing advertising from News Corp’s Sky Italia.
Sky already dominates satellite television in Italy, while Berlusconi’s Mediaset is the country’s leading private terrestrial broadcaster. Mediaset and state broadcaster RAI are required to migrate their networks to a digital platform by 2012.
On the personal front, Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, is going through a divorce and is facing allegations of prostitution and alleged sexual relations with minors.
