Sky Italia wins fight with ratings agency

ROME -- Rupert Murdoch's Sky Italia paybox has won vindication in a landmark ruling by Italy's anti-trust authority, which has slapped a whopping $2.3 million fine on the country's ratings compiler Auditel, claiming it favored generalist rivals Mediaset and RAI, slanting the playing field in Italy. Italy's new competition watchdog, installed after the recent fall of former premier and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, who controls Mediaset, has claimed Sky Italia the victor in a protracted dispute with Auditel, pointing out several anti-competitive practices. These include a systematic refusal to release daily ratings for single channels, aggregated according to each platform (such as digital, satellite and web), and also a refusal to provide data for smaller digital channels, such as News Corp.'s free DTT station, called Cielo. These practices have "strongly limited growth potential for broadcasters looking to erode ratings of generalist channels by diversifying their programming, based on audience behavior," Sky Italia said in a statement. Furthermore Auditel, which is Italy's single ratings compiler "guaranteed an advantage to its main shareholders (RAI and Mediaset)." Earlier this week, previous to the favorable ruling, Sky called for an overhaul of Italy's ratings system, pointing to Auditel's monopoly position and the key data it provides making it all the more necessary for its to fulfil its role "in line with international best practice, with absolute transparency and non-discrimination." Auditel defended the correctness of its practices and announced it will file an appeal. Contact Nick Vivarelli at nvivarelli@gmail.com