By Deborah Ball 

MILAN -- The board of Italian broadcaster Mediaset SpA rejected new changes proposed by France's Vivendi SA to a pay-TV deal between the two companies, setting up a bitter showdown between two of Europe's media giants.

In a statement, Mediaset said the company will adopt "all necessary measures" to enforce an agreement between the two companies and threatened legal action if Vivendi fails to respect the accord.

In April, Vivendi agreed to acquire Mediaset's pay TV unit in a deal that also included a 3.5% share swap between the two companies.

But earlier this week, the French company sent a letter to Mediaset, which is controlled by the family of former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, in which it proposed new terms: Vivendi would buy only 20% of the pay TV unit, but would also acquire 15% of Mediaset itself in three years.

Vivendi said it was seeking to amend the contracts after "significant differences in the analysis" of the results of the pay TV unit, Mediaset Premium, emerged after the companies signed the deal.

Mediaset has struggled for some time to bring the loss-making pay TV unit back to health and looked to the Vivendi deal as a solution to a long-running problem.

In statements Tuesday, it blasted the new proposal, while Fininvest SpA, the Berlusconi holding company that controls Mediaset, accused Vivendi of attempting to build "an extremely large stake in Mediaset in an underhanded and unacceptable way."

Vivendi instead expressed optimism that it could strike a new deal with the Italian company, with Vivendi CEO Arnaud Puyfontaine saying Tuesday that the French group hopes to build an "even more ambitious relationship" with the Italians.

A Vivendi spokesman responded that "contrary to what Mediaset contends, Vivendi honors its commitments and will not accept accusations to the contrary," adding that the April agreement was based on a business plan "that proved to be wildly optimistic or even totally unworkable."

He said that Vivendi reserves "the right to pursue Mediaset for defamation" following its statements.

Write to Deborah Ball at deborah.ball@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2016 12:48 ET (16:48 GMT)

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