New sports TV channel for Italy

Italy’s RCS MediaGroup is set to spend up to €60m ($75m) over five years on the launch of a new sports television channel, according to the TV Digital Divide website. The new channel, Gazzetta TV, will be distributed on free-to-air digital terrestrial television.

RCS, which owns daily sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, will reportedly spend between €8m and €9m on establishing the channel before spending an average of €15m per year. The goal is for RCS to compete in the sports TV market, which is dominated in Italy by Sky, Mediaset, Rai and Sportitalia. The channel will be managed by Digital Factory, a subsidiary of production company Digicast.