Mediaset Group

The Mediaset Group is the most important private company in
Italy’s communications and television media sector, and one of
the largest in the world. Mediaset owes its success to a revolutionary
entrepreneurial project started 20 years ago by Silvio
Berlusconi, the founder of the Fininvest Group: to create a
totally integrated group capable of controlling all aspects of
television, and able to launch and win the challenge for public
monopoly of the RAI, Italy’s public broadcasting system.
In 1995, Mediaset opened its stock offering to important operating
partners and large Italian and foreign financial institutions.
The enlistment of new shareholders was in response to the dual
need to enter into alliances with group leaders at the global
level in the television, electronic media, and telecommunications
market – and to generate adequate financial means for
international competition. Today, Mediaset is among the most
profitable companies on the Italian Stock Exchange and is listed
on “The World’s Top Companies,” the Financial Times’ annual
register of the 500 largest companies in the world. Mediaset has
continued to consolidate its own successes in general television
in Italy and is dedicated to expansion beyond its national
borders. Presently, the Group is mainly formed by four major
companies: RTI, the publishing company; Publitalia, responsible
for advertising; Elettronica Industriale, managing signal broadcasting;
and Videotime, producing the Mediaset networks’
television programs. Each group has its own subsidiaries and
branches.