Vivendi ‘tables offer’ for Mediaset pay TV unit

France-based entertainment giant Vivendi has reportedly made an offer for the pay TV assets of Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset.

Il Corriere della Sera reported that the offer has been with Mediaset, which operates in Italy and Spain and has free TV assets, for “several days”.

Vivendi plans to fund the deal for Mediaset Premium through cash and shares, but reports suggest disagreements over price had slowed talks.

Vivendi, which owns TV, gaming and music assets, has focused its efforts on building a European content and media giant in recent years. It recently became the majority shareholder in Telecom Italia and is set to take a chunk of the merged Banijay-Zodiak Media company.

A Vivendi spokesman said there was no comment regarding the Mediaset reports, while Mediaset could not be directly contacted. Reuters, however, reported a spokesman as saying the companies were not in talks.

It is not the first time Vivendi has been linked with Mediaset Premium, which was spun out of the core Mediaset business in December 2014.