MediaForEurope (MFE), the TV ownership group owned by Italy’s prominent Berlusconi family, has launched a bid to purchase German free-to-air commercial network ProSiebenSat.1.
Ran by Pier Silvio Berlusconi via his family’s Fininvest Group investment fund, MFE is already ProSiebenSat.1’s largest single shareholder, holding over 26% of the shares in the broadcaster, and has eyed a total takeover of the media business since 2022.
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A buyout could come for a price of around €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion), as German business law means that MFE must offer ProSiebenSat.1 shareholders the average price of a share across the previous three months, which, as of the time of writing, would be close to €5.7 per share compared to a current share value of €6.5 which was noted at the close of play on March 26 after ProSiebenSat.1 stock rallied with the takeover news.
MFE’s long-term goal through the purchase is to create a pan-European commercial broadcast service predicated on ad-supported free TV, and ProSiebenSat.1 is the second-largest TV business in Europe in terms of household reach.
In service of this, MFE already owns Italian broadcast group Mediaset, and its Spanish arm Mediaset España, the latter of which is the vehicle for its ProSiebenSat.1 stake.
This buyout offer follows a challenging couple of years for ProSiebenSat.1, particularly 2023 which saw revenue drop by 75 to below €4 billion for the first time since 2016, the third consecutive year of revenue reductions at the business which resulted in a loss of €134 million across the year.
Revenues rebounded slightly in 2024, growing by 2% up to €3.91 billion, within the firm’s targets, but nonetheless the tale is indicative of the struggles in the free-to-air TV market at the moment with linear TV advertising revenue falling as confidence is shaken.
In a statement Pier Silvio Berlusconi, son of MFE founder (and former Italian prime minister) Silvio Berlusconi, commented on the takeover plans, saying: “We believe that ProSiebenSat.1 needs a strong shareholder that can provide expertise and experience in the industry, making an active contribution to its growth journey.
“The aim is to create a cross-media, cross-national pan-European group that naturally acts as an alternative to the digital giants and succeeds in the ambitious goal of being able to compete and grow.”
ProSiebenSat.1, meanwhile, has said in a statement that "the executive board and the supervisory board of ProSiebenSat.1 will carefully review the offer after publication of the offer document and will subsequently issue their reasoned opinion as required under Sec. 27 of the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act."
ProSiebenSat.1 holds a variety of elite sports rights in Germany, including for German soccer’s elite Bundesliga competition, and – most recently – the extreme sports’ showpiece X Games, which it covers across neighboring Austria and Switzerland also.
