BMI has introduced several structural changes to this latest update on Italy's telecommunications market. Changes include a reorganisation of the various sections of the report and the adoption of a new format for presenting the operator profiles. The Mobile Data section of the report includes new coverage on the development of mobile value added services in Italy, as well as an overview of some of the sector's recent contract wins. At the time of writing, the only Italian mobile operator which had published subscriber data for the last three months of 2008 was Vodafone. In Q408 (Vodafone's third financial quarter), the operator reported the loss of around 100,000 new customers. BMI suspects that Vodafone's fourth quarter losses reflect the deduction of inactive prepaid users from the operator's books. However, it is also possible that some of Vodafone's prepaid customer losses were the result of prepaid users migrating to one of the operator's postpaid tariffs. It is notable that, despite the loss of prepaid customers, Vodafone gained more than 600,000 new postpaid subscribers in the final quarter of 2008.
In January 2009, Italian incumbent operator Telecom Italia launched a new structure which is intended to help the operator realise its new 2009-2011 Strategic Plan. Driving the three-year business strategy is a rollout of new services and the development of innovative businesses. Italy and Brazil are the two areas of focus, though the Group is also seizing opportunities on the Argentine market. In February 2009, international and local press reports indicated that Rupert Murdoch's global media group News Corp was in talks for the possible acquisition of a stake in Telecom Italia. News Corp already operates in Italy through its satellite TV operator Sky Italia. It has been suggested however, that News Corp's acquisition of a stake in Telecom Italia would face opposition from Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, whose Mediaset group is one of Sky Italia's main competitors in the Italian TV market.
Other recent developments in the Italian telecoms market include the announcement, in January 2009, that broadband ISP Tiscali had unveiled a new business plan which is aimed at reducing operating costs of around EUR40mn (US$52mn) and improving profitability. Measures to be implemented include restructuring and voluntary redundancies. In addition to continuing with its negotiated sale of its UK subsidiary, Tiscali has also announced the closure of its ADSL-based IPTV service in Italy. Poor subscriber take-up is thought to be main reason behind the decision. Italy has moved up one place in BMI's latest set of Business Environment Rankings for Western Europe. The country now sits in ninth place just behind Austria. Despite this slight increase, Italy's composite score has dropped significantly in our current update. This has been influenced primarily by a much weaker country risk rating. Italy now has the lowest country risk score in Western Europe.
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