Sky buys Viacom’s MTV Italia

MTV Italia airs US romantic comedy Faking It

European pay TV broadcaster Sky Italia has acquired Viacom’s MTV Italia channel for an undisclosed sum.

The free-to-air channel will continue to distribute Viacom content, along with Sky Italia programming, for the foreseeable future.

Sky Italia already has two FTA channels on DTT in Italy: Cielo and Sky TG24.

Viacom International Media Networks completed the full acquisition of MTV Italia from Telecom Italia Media in September 2013.

In related news, Viacom is adding two new pay channels to its portfolio: Teen Nick, a Nickelodeon channel targeting teenagers, and MTV Next.

Under the multi-year deal with Sky Italia, Viacom will also launch Nickelodeon- and MTV-branded apps in Italy in 2016.