Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi {{audio|It-Silvio_Berlusconi.ogg|listen}} (born September 29, 1936 in Milan) is the current Prime Minister of Italy and is the leader of the Forza Italia political movement, a party which was established for his entry into politics.

Business career

Berlusconi's business career began in the construction business in the 1960s. His first entry into the media world was by means of a cable television station, Telemilano, designed to service his Milano 2 residential development. Soon afterward, he formed his first media group, Fininvest, and from there he expanded to a country wide network of local TV stations which would all broadcast the same materials, forming, in effect, a single national station. This was illegal at the time, since Italian law reserved the monopoly of TV broadcasting to the public television. In 1980 he founded Italy's first private national network Canale 5, shortly followed by Italia 1 bought from The Rusconis (1982) and Rete 4 (1984) bought from Mondadori. A strong help to his successful effort to create the first and only Italian commercial TV empire is due to his link with Bettino Craxi, at that time the secretary-general of Italian Socialist Party and the prime minister of Italy. For many years, the three TV channels owned by Berlusconi were not allowed to broadcast news and political commentary, yet they formed the main alternative to the three State-owned channels Rai Uno, Rai Due and Rai Tre. Only in the 1990's was the government monopoly on information ended.

Related Topics:
1960s - Fininvest - Network - 1980 - Canale 5 - 1982 - 1984 - Bettino Craxi - Italian Socialist Party - Rai Uno - Rai Due - Rai Tre

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In 1995, Berlusconi sold a portion of his media holdings, first to the German media group Kirch (now bankrupt) and then by public floatation. In 1999 Berlusconi expanded again in the media business in a partnership with Kirch called the Epsilon MediaGroup.

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Berlusconi's main group, called Mediaset, comprises three national television channels, which hold approximately 45% of the national viewing audience; and Publitalia, the leader Italian advertising and publicity agency; Berlusconi also owns Mondadori, the largest Italian publishing house which publishes Panorama, a news magazine; he has interests in cinema and home video distribution firms (Medusa and Penta), insurance and banking (Mediolanum) and a variety of other activities. His brother controls Il Giornale, and his wife Il foglio, both center-right newspapers which print a lot fewer daily copies then the more popular "Corriere della Sera" and "La Repubblica".

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Berlusconi also owns the football club AC Milan which some think has been an important factor in the success of his political career ("Forza Italia" means "Go Italy!", a slogan often used as a football chant http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/italy/stories/berlusconi/).

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