Silvio Berlusconi is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, real estate and insurance tycoon, bank and media proprietor, sports team owner and songwriter. Berlusconi is the founder and major shareholder of Fininvest, one of the country's ten largest privately owned companies, which currently operates in media and finance. Berlusconi's main company Mediaset comprises three national television channels, which hold approximately half the national viewing audience, and Publitalia, the leading Italian advertising and publicity agency. He also owns Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the largest Italian publishing house, whose publications include Panorama, one of the most popular news magazine in Italy. He has interests in cinema and home video distribution firms (Medusa and Penta), insurance and banking (Mediolanum) and a variety of other activities. His brother, Paolo Berlusconi, owns and operates Il Giornale, a centre-right newspaper which provides a strong pro-Berlusconi slant on Italy and its politics. Berlusconi also owns the nationally and internationally successful football club AC Milan which has made an important contribution to his continuing political success.
