Italian Stalemate

The sky may be blue, but that's not stopping Italian doc producers from hoping theirs will soon be paved with gold. The result of a merger between satcasters Tele+ and Stream, Sky Italia launched on July 31, to an estimated 2.2 million subscribers. The News Corp-owned platform hopes to soon reach 10 million customers with a bouquet of 120 channels delivering movies, sports, the country's first all-news outlet and - wait for it - documentaries. Four Discovery channels and six new Sky channels devoted to film are among the stations offered by Sky Italia. But, the news that has the country's non-fiction producers guardedly optimistic

October 1, 2003

The sky may be blue, but that's not stopping Italian doc producers from hoping theirs will soon be paved with gold. The result of a merger between satcasters Tele+ and Stream, Sky Italia launched on July 31, to an estimated 2.2 million subscribers. The News Corp-owned platform hopes to soon reach 10 million customers with a bouquet of 120 channels delivering movies, sports, the country's first all-news outlet and - wait for it - documentaries. Four Discovery channels and six new Sky channels devoted to film are among the stations offered by Sky Italia. But, the news that has the country's non-fiction producers guardedly optimistic