Discovery Communications bought in Italy the company Switchover Media, which has five TV stations. Following this acquisition, Discovery becomes the third most important player on the Italian TV market, according to variety.com. Through this transaction (the value was not disclosed), Discovery Communications has taken from Switchover Media the total control of four free TV channels and a pay-TV channel, all five of them broadcasting in Italy.
Discovery Communications also operates in Italy Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Travel & Living, Discovery Science and Discovery World, which broadcast on Sky Italia satellite platform, owned by the magnate Rupert Murdoch. Also, Discovery Communications has two digital terrestrial TV channels in Italy: Real Time and Dmax. Following the acquisition of Switchover Media, Discovery Communications has become the third most important player on Italian TV market, after public broadcaster RAI and Mediaset company controlled by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Switchover Media Company, which was founded in 2009 by Francesco Nespega, after the rebranding of Jetix, controlled by the Disney group operates the TV channels for children K2 and Frisbee, the GXT channel centered on male audience, and another two channels, Giallo and Focus.
The investment of Discovery on the Italian TV market is a part of the expansion strategy in Europe. In December, Discovery Communications, which is run by David Zaslav, announced that it will buy 20% of Eurosport Group, owned by French media company TF1, for €170 million.
At that time, Discovery Communications announced the conclusion of a final agreement for the acquisition of ProSiebenSat.1, for approximately $1.7 billion, and SBS Nordic operations, which include 12 TV stations and 19 radio stations in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
Discovery Communications is one of the leading companies worldwide in the field of documentary programs, with over 1.8 billion subscribers in 217 countries and territories. In Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Discovery distributes 14 brands, translated in 27 languages and reaches 244 million subscribers in 118 countries.
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