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December 2, 1998 <Picture>
Dow Jones Newswires
Canal Plus Open To Telecom Italia As Digital TV Partner
Dow Jones Newswires
MILAN -- France's Canal Plus SA (F.CLP) signaled Wednesday it's open to talks with Telecom Italia SpA (TI) on sharing a digital platform.
The signal from the French television company comes one day after Telecom Italia decided not to complete a digital platform alliance with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS).
"I'm going to repeat what (Canal Plus' International Director) Michel Thoulouze has said in the past," a Canal Plus spokesman told Dow Jones. "Canal Plus has always been open to Italian partners interested in getting involved in the television platform. We speak to Telecom Italia every so often."
Canal Plus controls Italian pay television operator Telepiu, which said Wednesday that the company hasn't had any recent talks with Telecom Italia.
Telecom Italia, meanwhile, said "the situation is open; there will be negotiations in every camp."
Telecom Italia's future in pay television has become increasingly murky since Franco Bernabe took over as chief executive officer last week.
Last Monday, Murdoch said Telecom Italia and News Corp. were close to signing a digital television agreement that would give Telecom Italia 51% and News Corp. Europe 39% of a future digital television company to compete with Telepiu.
But, in a change of course, Telecom Italia's board Tuesday gave Bernabe a mandate to reopen negotiations with any interested company for the development of the digital platform.
Analysts and traders believe Bernabe, who took the post of CEO last week, is backing off from pay television for fear it's too costly a venture for the former state-run monopoly.
Canal Plus is now in talks to bring Italian state broadcaster Rai into the fold of its digital platform. That's only after Rai pulled away from original negotiations with Telecom Italia as a result of Telecom Italia's management problems this fall.
Rai said Wednesday that it's still working out a deal with Canal Plus and that there were no developments on the Telecom Italia side.
Other Italian organizations are also interested in teaming up with Telepiu. Wind, a telecom consortium and future competitor to Telecom Italia, also is in talks with Telepiu. Wind includes Italian energy group Enel SpA (I.ENE), Deutsche Telekom (DT) and France Telecom (F.FTL.)
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