The Italian government has floated a new conflict of interest law that may weaken Silvio Berlusconi’s dominance of the Italian television and help rival media baron Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corp in the country.

Under the proposed law that is targeted particularly to end Berlusconi’s stranglehold in Italian TV, there is a provision to put a 45 percent cap on advertising on any one broadcaster. In addition to this there is a proposal to force the broadcasters - Berlusconi’s company Fininvest-run Mediaset and state-run broadcaster RAI to transfer one of their analog channels to digital within 15 months thus freeing up two channels that will enable new investors to step in.

Murdoch’s Sky Italia, the only satellite provider in Italy is poised to gain the most should the proposed law passes through. In the duel between Berlusconi and Murdoch, Berlusconi enjoyed the upper hand so far as he was also Italy’s prime minister. However, following his defeat to Romano Prodi, things have taken a turn for Berlusconi. Prodi has vowed to end Berlusconi’s domination over the Italian media. Since then, Murdoch has been inciting Prodi publically.

However, Francesco Siliato, a media analyst and a member of a commission consulting with Italy’s minister of communications, Paolo Gentilon said;

More than it being an intervention in favor of Murdoch and News Corp., what is happening is a freeing up of the Berlusconi monopoly. It is an attempt by this government, with what little they can do with the margins they have in Parliament, to seriously open up the television marketplace.

The once friendly partners in business Berlusconi and Murdoch who used to dine together have turned out to be bitter enemies using the press to score a brownie point over the other whenever an opportunity presented itself. The fight has just got more interesting.

Via: New York Times