The Italian government could gradually sell part of its interest in state broadcaster Rai, Communications Minister Maurizio Gasparri said in an interview with weekly magazine Panorama.
But Gasparri, outlining some details of a new bill to reform the Italian media sector to be presented to ministers at the end of the month, said it would be a "long time" before the state would give up a majority stake in Rai.
"I am thinking about a progressive reduction in the presence of the state, which would continue to defend the role of the public broadcaster and would include safeguards," he said.
"For example, to avoid financial speculation, you would not be allowed to resell the stake ahead of a preset time or there could be a limit to the amount a single company is allowed to buy."
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi early this year revived the idea of selling off two of Rai's three channels - a move first floated during his seven-month stint as prime minister in 1994.
Rai competes neck and neck with Mediaset, Italy's top commerical broadcaster which is owned by the Berlusconi family under a virtual broadcasting duopoly in Italy.
"The privatisation model will not be that of Telecom Italia but that adopted by Eni and Enel", where the state maintained a controlling stake, Gasparri said.
Gasparri said Rai would have to be made "appetising" before a sale, but that regions and local companies could become shareholders.
The new bill also includes new anti-trust criteria and aims to harmonise existing rules in radio and television, he said.
"The new threshold should be linked to the percentage of advertising revenues that each operator has compared to the total revenues in the Italian media sector."
When questioned about the details, Gasparri said a 25 per cent market share limit could be seen as "reasonable".
Mediaset captured 65 per cent of Italian TV advertising revenues in 2001 as Rai is limited by an annual advertising ceiling.
Rai's three channels gained 46.5 per cent of the Italian television audience in 2001 while 43.1 per cent of viewers were loyal to Mediaset.
Berlusconi has admitted in the past that there was a conflict of interest between his business empire and political role, and parliament is due to approve legislation later this year which the government says will resolve the issue.
Under the terms of the proposed law, Berlusconi will not be able to manage his companies, but will be able to own them.
Critics say the law does not go far enough, however, and is little more than window dressing.