Pier Silvio Berlusconi, CEO of Mediaset, tells the announced Mediaset revolution that will redesign the editorial face of a company that with MFE aims to create a pan-European player to face competition from the big names of the web. And it does so on the eve of the opening of the will of the former premier and founder of Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi.
ANSA Agency
Berlusconi's will opens, his children present - Economia
Today the will of Silvio Berlusconi is opened. From what we learn, the children have agreed on this date, with the whole family summoned by the notary who keeps the last will of the founder of Mediaset and Forza Italia (ANSA)
The words of Pier Silvio at the presentation of Mediaset
schedules"I'm not going to get into politics". Following in the footsteps of his father Silvio, who died less than a month ago, to collect his legacy, Pier Silvio Berlusconi does not think. At least for now. "Politics is a serious profession, one that cannot be learned overnight," he stresses. But then he admits that, immediately after the death of the Knight, "something on an emotional level moved: I thought that his relationship with Italians and with Italy, made of love and freedom, is a legacy that must live. Besides, I'm 54 years old, my father was 58 when he went into politics...", he adds with a smile. "Who will replace my father? No one ever."
"The more days go by, the more enormous the lack," sighs Pier Silvio Berlusconi. His father, Silvio, founder of Mediaset, passed away on 12 June. And the evening presentation of the new schedules in Cologno Monzese opens with a tribute: a collage of symbolic moments, from the first cassettes to the conventions in Monte Carlo, from the triumph of Milan in the European Cup to the running board, to the 'let's not give up' launched by Pier Silvio in the company a few hours after the funeral of the Knight. A surprise video wanted by employees that moves the CEO: "Thank you all", he says with his voice broken by emotion. Then a kiss to the sky: "I love you, Daddy".
"From next season a new journalist arrives on Rete4: Bianca Berlinguer. I am very happy. This is an important operation destined to increase the weight of our network dedicated to information". announces Pier Silvio Berlusconi, CEO of Mediaset. Berlinguer will conduct a prime time in-depth analysis, probably on Tuesdays, and will alternate with Stasera Italia in the early evening with Nicola Porro and Augusto Minzolini (broadcast on weekends). He arrives with "a journalist's contract, in line with the parameters of this role in Mediaset", he specifies.
Then he rejects the hypothesis of abolishing the Rai fee: "Public television has more than 12 thousand employees, at least two-thirds would go home to make the accounts come back. And then Rai would drain resources on the advertising market. Impossible." For the CEO of Mediaset, "the public service has a very important role, because from there passes a large part of the construction of the identity of the country, a role to which it cannot be abdicated". Rai, he points out, "is a great company, but it could do much more. The fee is an important tax: you could have rules of engagement and better products".
There is only one name that Pier Silvio Berlusconi would still snatch from the competition: "Fiorello, always him. We have a beautiful relationship, but those few times we hear we talk about everything, except TV". Fabio Fazio? "From an editorial point of view I would have no preclusions, but his is a product that costs very dearly". And if this is a season of revolving doors for TV, "a bit is a coincidence, a bit is linked to the fact that every change of government triggers a change in Rai: poor Rai!".
"No", there is no hypothesis of sale of MFE-Mediaset says Pier Silvio Berlusconi. "We didn't talk about it in the family. It bothered me that with the death of my father there were similar hypotheses, but it is normal", adds Berlusconi at the presentation of the schedules of the next season of Mediaset, answering a question on the sharp rise of the stock on the stock exchange after the death of his father.