A way out of the Twentieth century. Reviewing the evolution of the Italian media industries from the perspective of an (inter)national media company: The case of Sky Italia

Over the past decades, deregulation in the telecommunications sector, changing business models in the audiovisual media industries, and the rise of global platforms have transformed the Italian media economy. If the “network media economy” approach has the merit of providing an effective and synthetic view of the evolution of media industries over time, its general overview risks overlooking the role of the very subjects that make up these industries, that is, media firms and their strategies. The paper argues that by situating the network media economy within a larger framework that encompasses the actions of media corporations within political, technological, and social frameworks, it is possible to gain a greater awareness of the equilibria at stake. The specific case of Sky Italia, a multichannel video distribution company owned by News Corp and, since 2018, Comcast, is used as a case history to highlight the evolution of the national media industries.