Despite high-profile talks with Rupert Murdoch, looks like Berlusconi's not ready to sell Mediaset.
Four years later, he was appointed director of scheduling and program coordination for Mediaset's three channels.
He was convicted in 2012 on allegations that he had engaged in tax fraud involving Mediaset.
It would be unthinkable to screen Mr Fo's play on Rai, let alone Mediaset.
On top of competition from Mediaset, Sky has suffered a number of regulatory setbacks.
Mr Berlusconi's government had previously planned to give them away, with Mediaset and RAI expected to win.
Assets: Family holding company Fininvest owns 50% of Mediaset, plus stakes in publishing, life insurance and discount retail companies.
Then there is the tax fraud case against him regarding the sale of film rights by his Mediaset Group.
La Repubblica is a centre-left newspaper, while Panorama is a weekly news magazine owned by Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset company.
Others reckon Mediaset will face a fair regulatory environment, but that the firm's position will not be directly attacked.
New, more highbrow channels, whether from Sky Italia's satellite platform or digital terrestrial channels, are slowly fragmenting Mediaset's audience.
On Mediaset's three private channels there is a daily diet of reality TV, which remains popular among young Italians.
Although a court has judged Mediaset's refusal unlawful, it has not been able to enforce the decision, he laments.
"If I have to hear those chants every time, you can't go forward like that, " Balotelli told Mediaset in Italy.
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Its newish pay-TV business, Mediaset Premium, which it built on the cheap to defend against Sky Italia, is losing money.
All the changes affect Mediaset as well as Sky, but hit Sky harder because Mediaset remains chiefly a free-to-air business.
Her younger brother, Mediaset deputy chairman Pier Silvio, demanded to know how Mr Franceschini dared make such a "bad taste" remark.
Shares in Mediaset, which broadcasts in more than 8 countries including Spain and Switzerland, fell more than 3% on the news.
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Prosecutors accused Berlusconi of reducing Mediaset's tax liabilities by purchasing U.S. movie rights at inflated prices and then creating illegal slush funds.
But only one camera crew - from Italy's privately owned Mediaset television network - risked life and limb to film the event.
And Mediaset has failed to diversify away from recession-mired Italy and Spain.
Mediaset did worse, with its Italian ad revenues down by a tenth.
He is currently appealing against a conviction for tax fraud over deals his firm Mediaset made to purchase TV rights to US films.
Mediaset's shares have fallen by nearly half since late October last year, when it became clear that he was on his way out.
And Maddalena Corvaglia, a former showgirl on ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's network, Mediaset, was dismissive about Mrs Tarantola's ambitions for women on RAI.
Mr Berlusconi, who is reportedly spending a lot of time at the firm, will have plenty to distract him from Mediaset's comely presenters.
If the government did buy the national network, Mr Berlusconi's media company, Mediaset, could benefit, according to people close to Telecom Italia's main shareholders.
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Germany's Kirch and Italy's Mediaset agreed to form an alliance in European television, which they hope Canal Plus of France, and others, will join.
Rupert Murdoch 's News Corp failed, again, to win control of Mediaset , an Italian television group controlled by Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest holding company.
Blu's Italian shareholders, which include Mediaset and Autostrade, controlled by the Benetton group, blamed BT for failing to take a leading role in the bidding.
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