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At the end of August the Italian Government issued a Decree to postpone the deadline for the validity of antitrust rules in the broadcasting sector. As IRIS readers will remember ( see IRIS 1995-1:10), a decision of the Constitutional Court (n. 420 of 1994) struck down Article 15 of the 1990 Law Governing Public and Private Broadcasting in Italy because it permitted a single company (Berlusconi's Fininvest) to control three national channels. The Court considered that provision to be unconstitutional because it infringes the principle of freedom of expression laid down in Art. 21 of the Italian...

The Italian Cabinet has approved a Bill setting up an Authority to oversee communications and radio and television standards. The Bill will become law after it has been approved by the Public Works Committee of the Senate. Article 1 establishes the Authority as a single organisation covering the radio and television and the telecommunications sectors. The Authority comes under a Chairman and is made up of three bodies, each with specific functions. The three bodies consist of two committees, one covering infrastructure and networks and the other dealing with products and services and a third structure,...

In IRIS 1996-5: 7-10 we published an overview of the state of Signatures and Ratifications of European Conventions and other international treaties that are relevant to the audiovisual sector. The listing of when States became Party to the Convention relating to the distribution of programme-carrying signals transmitted by satellite (printed on page 8) is, however, not correct. Accidentily it reproduces the dates on which States became Party to the Berne Convention for the protection of copyright of literary and artistic works (as printed on page 7). The correct date on which States became Party...

During a Hearing before a Parliamentary committee held on 25 June 1996, the Telecomunications Minister announced that a Bill was being drafted on an order of new television and telecommunication services. As reported in IRIS 1995-1: 19, the Italian Constitutional Court decided on 5 December 1995 that Article 15 of the Law governng public and private broadcasting in Italy (Law No 223 of 6 August 1990) is unconstitutional for the reason that it provides for a dominant position of a private commercial broadcaster (the Fininvest Group) in the audiovisual market (three nationwide channels). Despite...

On 15 April the Italian Football League revoked the three years assignment of football rights to the Cecchi Gori Group. As reported in IRIS 1996-4: 13, the Cecchi Gori Group, owner of two national terrestrial channels in Italy: Telemontecarlo and Videomusic, acquired the rights for the non-encrypted broadcasting of both domestic and international football games because their offer had been higher that the ones presented by the public broadcaster RAI and th Fininvest Group. However, after the rights' assigment, the Cecchi Gori Group did not comply with the financial requirements of the contract....