Berlusconi empire buys radio, launches digital TV

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's family bought into its first major radio group yesterday to bolster an empire embracing television, book publishing, movies and magazines.

Critics see a conflict between Berlusconi's business interests as a billionaire media tycoon and his political office. Berlusconi calls such suggestions an "urban myth".

Leading publisher Mondadori said it had closed a deal to buy national radio group Radio 1-0-1 for €39.6 milion, less than the €42 million it said it expected to pay when the deal was first announced in July.

The Milan-based firm, controlled by Berlusconi family holding company Fininvest, said it had also bought a 10 per cent stake in Rock FM, owner of two local radio licences.

The purchases start a long-anticipated campaign by Italy's media firms to buy into the fast-expanding radio market, where advertising revenues rose more than 20 per cent last year.

Chief executive Maurizio Costa has said buying Radio 1-0-1 is just the start of Mondadori's expansion into radio, opening a new audience to the firm whose publications range from Pope John Paul's autobiography to the women's glossy magazine Cosmopolitan.