Saturday's first afternoon World Cup match saw France labor to a 2-1 win over Australia in its tournament entry, and gave TF1 its best score of the year. The game kicked off at 12PM French time, and brought TF1 69% of the TV audience on a blistering Saturday afternoon. In total, 12.6M viewers tuned in for Les Bleus…

As French media company Vivendi continues its tussle with Italy's Mediaset, 41% of which is owned by Silvio Berlusconi, police have raided its Paris headquarters and seized unidentified documents.

The raid was connected with an investigation into alleged market manipulation related to Vivendi's purchase of a stake in M…

Italy's communications regulator Agcom has ordered Vincent Bolloré's French media group Vivendi to cut its stake in either Mediaset or Telecom Italia, ruling that building large stakes in both companies violates the country's antitrust laws.

At present, Vivendi is the biggest single shareholder in Italy's main telecoms…

Vincent Bolloré's French media giant Vivendi has confirmed that some of its top executives are being probed by Milan prosecutors for alleged market manipulation over the company's takeover attempt of Italian broadcaster Mediaset.

The company, which began building its stake in Mediaset in December after announcing plans…

France’s leading commercial network TF1, and Italian broadcaster Mediaset, have taken minority stakes in Studio71, the media studio and multi-channel network of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group. The companies are putting in a combined investment of 53M euros ($56.4M) at a valuation of approximately 400M euros ($425.7M)…

If 2016 is remembered for anything from an international entertainment perspective, it will be noted as the year of the paradox: when waves of right-wing anti-establishment and anti-globalization camps did, in fact, accelerate the pace of globalization. It is possible that in 2017, for example, more British companies w…

UPDATE: A mere day after declaring its intention to buy up to a 20% stake in Mediaset, Vincent Bolloré's French media giant Vivendi has taken 12% of the Italian broadcaster's shares. The swift move comes shortly after Vivendi announced it had taken 3% of the company with the intention of acquiring a fifth of Silvio…

Vivendi said today it has closed a deal to acquire the pay TV business of Italian media conglom Mediaset as part of a strategic alliance with Silvio Berlusconi’s outfit. The deal sets the way for Vivendi to push forward with plans to create a pan-Euro free-to-air, pay TV and over-the-top platform that can compete with…

EXCLUSIVE: When Vivendi finally closes its deal with Mediaset, described by insiders as an “industrial alliance,” in what should be the next few days, the result will be a media giant right in the heart of Europe. The deal as currently envisaged will see the companies swap a 3.5% stake in the other, each get a member…

The Little Big Shots are headed to Europe. Warner Bros International Television Production has set the first two international local production sales for the unscripted comedy/variety series that’s been a big hit for NBC. ITV has ordered a British version straight to series which will be produced by Wall to Wall, the…

Call it European Dis-Union: The battle for supremacy in the Euro TV market continues to heat up with Telefonica scoring a major victory over rival Telecom Italia in its attempts to acquire French media giant Vivendi's Brazilian broadband operator GVT. Got that?

While the primary focus of that deal appears to be the rap…

UPDATE, 12:50 PM: Italy’s Supreme Court has upheld the tax fraud verdict and one-year prison sentence for billionaire Italian politician/media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, but because of his age (he’s 76) it’s unlikely he’ll go to jail, the BBC reports. The court did order a review of a…