UPDATE 2-Tl Media considers broadcasting asset options
* Shares up 3.7 pct, off highs
(Adds details, Ben Ammar reaction, updates shares)
MILAN, July 10 (Reuters) - Loss-making Italian broadcaster
Telecom Italia Media () has no plan to sell its La7 TV
channel, but is looking at possible options to extract value
from its broadcasting assets, the company said in a statement on
Friday.
Daily newspaper La Stampa had reported the company's La7 and
MTV channels were being eyed for a possible acquisition by
businessman Tarak Ben Ammar, who later denied the report.
The shares ended up 3.7 percent at 0.1190 euros, off earlier
highs before the Telecom Italia Media statement. The company has
a market capitalisation of around 400 million euros ($558
million).
Telecom Italia Media's broadcasting activities include the
TV channels La7 and MTV as well as digital terrestrial network
assets that are being auctioned off in an operation the company
has said may be delayed to 2010.
"There is no sale plan for the La7 television network, while
analysis is under way on hypotheses of valorisation of single
broadcasting assets," said Telecom Italia Media, a unit of phone
company Telecom Italia ().
Its first-quarter revenues rose 16.4 percent to 29.1 million
euros, driven by La7 and its digital content operations. In the
quarter its daily share of TV viewers averaged 2.9 percent.
Ben Ammar, who is a board member of investment bank
Mediobanca () and of Telecom Italia, said in a statement
the report he was looking to buy La7 was "groundless".
The French-Tunisian businessman is seen as close to media
chiefs Rupert Murdoch of News Corp () and Silvio
Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister and owner of Mediaset
(), Italy's biggest private broadcaster, La Stampa said.
Sky declined to comment. The broadcaster cannot enter
digital terrestrial television until 2012 under commitments made
to the European Union.
The Italian free-to-air TV market is dominated by state
broadcaster RAI and Mediaset, while in the pay-TV market, the
leading player is Sky Italia, a unit of News Corp.
Sky Italia took the No.2 spot in Italian television revenues
last year, edging past Mediaset. The biggest earner was RAI.
"I confirm I have never talked with Murdoch and never had
negotiations on issues relating to Telecom Italia Media," Ben
Ammar said.
Ben Ammar controls digital terrestrial frequency DFREE which
broadcasts several channels. The licence on the frequency is
owned by PRIMA TV, in which Ben Ammar owns 95 percent and French
broadcaster TF1 () the remainder.
Telecom Italia Media owns two digital terrestrial
frequencies that cover more than 75 percent of the Italian
population.
($1=.7173 Euro)
(Reporting by Danilo Masoni and Gianluca Semeraro; Editing by
Dan Lalor and Simon Jessop)
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