Rai and Mediaset should team up to take on Netflix, says ex-Rai chief

Italian public broadcaster Rai and commercial broadcaster Mediaset should team up to build a platform to take on the might of global tech giants such as Netflix, according to Antonio Campo Dall’Orto, the former director-general of Rai.

Interviewed by Italian newspaper La Stampa, Dall’Orto, who served as Rai DG between 2015-17 and was previously EVP at Viacom International Media Networks in charge of southern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Turkey, said that there was a need for national European platforms to take on global players.

Campo Dall’Orto said that there was a need for projects of this type of involve collaboration between public and private players to achieve scale. He said there was no reason why such a platform should not be open to rival players.

Campo Dall’Orto said that media players could seek to address the challenge posted by global players by forging European industrial alliances. However, he said, there was no real pan-European market for content because people from different countries typically consume different media.

Campo Dall’Orto’s comments come as Mediaset shuts down digital-terrestrial carriage of its pay TV offering Mediaset Premium, which will henceforth only be available online without its flagship football content.

Italy has so far lacked a serious move to create a joint streaming platform like Salto in France, LOVEStv in Spain and, latterly, BritBox in the UK.