Richard Broughton, Tim Westcott / Published - 01 May 09

Italy's dominant commercial broadcaster, Mediaset, is pushing further into pay TV by driving customers of its digital terrestrial (DTT) service Mediaset Premium toward higher-value subscription packages. With another DTT service, Dahlia TV, following suit, the competitive pressure is rising for News Corp's satellite pay TV platform, Sky Italia. Key to the battle may well be the new rights for league soccer, which run from 2010/11 and are about to be put out to tender.