THE EU Commission has cleared the way for media owner Rupert Murdoch to participate in a key auction of television infrastructure in Italy, pitting him against companies owned by prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Well-placed sources in Brussels say Mr Berlusconi campaigned for a different outcome by directly contacting key officials in the EU executive.
The sources said such interventions were widely held in the commission to be an attempt to politicise competition policy, an area in which the EU executive’s powers are very strong.
When the commission met yesterday, the decision went against Mr Berlusconi, Italy’s richest man, leaving a branch of Mr Murdoch’s News Corp business free to bid in an upcoming tender for the allocation of digital television frequency.
The decision was doubly sensitive for the commission, given Mr Berlusconi’s political clout and News Corp’s control of influential papers such as the Wall Street Journal, the London Times and the Sun.
News Corp’s Sky Italia subsidiary and Mr Berlusconi’s Mediaset are close rivals in the lucrative Italian television market.
According to Italian regulators, Sky Italia had revenues of €2.71 billion last year and Mediaset had revenues of €2.51 billion.
The Italian state broadcaster RAI had revenues of €2.73 billion.
The commission’s official spokeswoman said that she was “not aware” of any lobbying when asked if she could confirm contacts of that nature from Mr Berlusconi or Mr Murdoch.
She did not respond directly to the question of whether it was appropriate for a head of government who also owns large media interests to contact the commission on a sensitive competition dossier.
“Some colleagues of yours were asking the same question yesterday, very late in the day, and I did go to the president’s cabinet and ask around and absolutely found no evidence of this,” the spokeswoman said.
“In many issues at many different points in times in the commission, people send letters, make phone calls etc, etc.
“You will find that that is part of the normal business of the commission.
“But the allegations that I was faced with yesterday about last-minute high-level lobbying, as it was described to me, was absolutely not confirmed by my inquiries anywhere,” she said.
News Corp had agreed in 2003 not to enter the Italian digital terrestrial television market before 2012 when seeking the commission’s approval for a deal in which it entered the Italian pay-TV market. Lifting this obligation from Mr Murdoch, the commission said there had been “significant changes” in the Italian television market in recent years.
Sky Italia can bid only for one frequency. If successful, the company will be obliged to limit use of the frequency to non-pay channels.
