Satellite : The Secret of the Key..

[robby3333]

Murdoch vs Berlusconi: The Secret of the Key
10/21/2009 @ 5:54 PM


The one that allows viewers of News Corp’s Sky Italia to tune into digital terrestrial programming? Turns out that the key is ... well ... the key to big-and-getting-bigger feud between News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, the guy with ultimate control over state-owned broadcaster RAI and the owner of Italy’s commercial broadcaster Mediaset.

In an attempt to slow Sky Italia (which offers the only real video competition to the Berlusconi TV empire), Berlusconi’s government doubled the value-added tax on satellite TV. Berlusconi’s Mediaset refused to carry Sky Italia’s advertising and ... to cap it all off ... RAI encrypted much of its content so that it could not be viewed via Sky Italia boxes. (All this according to the Financial Times.)

Point, set, match? Not hardly. Murdoch’s minions came up with the UBS key allowing its 5 million or so subs to easily (and cheaply) tap into the free-to-air digital programming. Including, of course, RAI.

Gotta love these moguls when they get mad ....