The Government then directed by Berlusconi, distributed money to the consumers so that they were using it in decoders and to promote this way the transition to the digital television, but the subsidies distorted the competitiveness because they excluded the technologies for satellite, according to the Commission.

"The Commission has decided that the radio stations and television that have benefited from most of the subsidies should reimburse the state aid", he said the executive institution of the EU in a bulletin.

A spokesman of the Commission confirmed that one of the companies that benefited was Mediaset.

The state aid was delivered between 2004-2005. Italy also did authorizations in 2006 and the Commission approved them because they were "technologically neutral and provided with the target to promote the transition to the digital television".

The family Berlusconi controls Mediaset, which is of background the biggest company of radio and television deprived of Italy. The arm mediático of Telecom Italy also has benefited from the subsidies.

The satellite digital platform, Sky Italy, property of Rupert Murdoch, incited the investigation of the European Union on having complained about that the state subsidies were opposite to the competition.


(24/01/07)