(ANSA) - Italy's antitrust authority has opened a probe into claims that government incentives to buy digital TV decoders constitute a conflict of interests for Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
One of the companies which distributes and sells the decoders in Italy is controlled by the premier's brother, Paolo Berlusconi.
The authority's decision to open a probe was prompted by a group of centre-left opposition MPs who wrote a letter pointing out this situation.
The 2006 budget, which was approved definitively on Thursday, includes a measure through which the government pays part of the cost of terrestrial digital decoders bought in the regions of Sardinia and Valle D'Aosta.
The antitrust authority's action reportedly also targets similar subsidies offered during 2005.
The new probe comes on the heel of another opened by the European Union on Wednesday. The EU has opened an inquiry into possible breaches of free-market rules thanks to the incentives which it says could amount to favouritism towards terrestrial broadcasters, over satellite or cable broadcasters.
Italy's satellite TV platform, Rupert Murdoch's Sky Italia, did not receive any such incentives and has argued the government's move was unfair. The two probes drew expressions of impatience from the governing centre-right coalition, with MPs saying the government was only trying to encourage the switch to new technology.
"Yesterday the EU, today the Antitrust. The terrestrial digital platform needs to be established immediately," said Alessio Butti of the National Alliance party.
