Telecom Italia (TI) struck a five-year deal with Sky Italia to share assets and distribute the satellite broadcaster’s content to fixed and mobile devices over TI’s infrastructure, so paving the way for what both companies claim is the first quadplay service in Italy.

“Today, in Italy, with Sky, we are starting a new collaboration model between telco and media companies that allows us to go to the market with a fully convergent offer,” said Marco Patuano, Telecom Italia CEO. “We are convinced that this strategic deal is an important driver for the development of the new ultra-broadband networks and of the innovative technologies that are at the core of our business plan featuring more than €5 billion investments for the three year period 2015-2017.”

Sky’s content is to be distributed over TI’s ‘next-generation’ IP network, and accessed on landlines via Sky’s dedicated ‘My Sky HD’ decoder.

TI launched today a “TIM Sky” promotion, starting from €14 per month for users already with fibre or ADSL connectivity, and from €39 per month for a quadruple play package (internet landline and mobile, voice and TV content).

Under TI’s new three-year strategic plan up until end-2017, TI is looking to cover 75 per cent of Italy’s population with its fibre network and 95 per cent with 4G (up from 80 per cent at the end of 2014).

Some €900 million has been set aside for ‘mobile ultrabroadband’ networks, with €2.9 billion assigned to fixed ultrabroadband.