Sky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian satellite television platform owned by the American media conglomerate Comcast. Sky Italia also broadcasts three national free-to-air television channels: TV8, Cielo and Sky TG24. As of 2018, following an agreement with Mediaset, Sky Italia also operates a series of subscription-based terrestrial channels offering sports, entertainment, and movies. Sky Italia is also the major sports broadcaster in Italy. Pay TV services on Sky Italia satellite platform are encrypted in NDS VideoGuard. History Sky Italia was founded on 31 July 2003 by the merger of TELE+ and Stream TV. Sky Italia uses the Hot Bird 13B satellite at 13.0°E. On 28 June 2010, Sky Italia changed its brands and logos, making them identical to the BSkyB ones. On 1 October 2010, Sky activated its first 3D channel, Sky Sport 3D, available without any extra cost to the Sport pack subscribers. The very first event Sky Sport 3D aired was the 2010 Ryder Cup. On 25 December 2010, Sky launched another 3D channel: Sky Cinema 3D, airing 3D movies, available for free for Cinema pack subscribers. These channels have been replaced by Sky 3D on 6 September 2011, then closed on 16 January 2018. Tom Mockridge, the then head of Sky Italia replaced Rebekah Brooks as chief executive of News International after she had resigned on 15 July 2011. Andrea Zappia replaced Tom Mockridge as CEO on 1 August 2011. On 7 October 2011 Sky Italia announced it reached the 5 million subscribers benchmark. Following News Corporation's split into two on 28 June 2013, to create two separate companies, 21st Century Fox (the re-branded News Corporation), and the spin-off company New News Corp, the 100% stake held by News Corporation in Sky Italia was retained by the re-branded 21st Century Fox. Following media speculation, on 12 May 2014 Sky Italia's sister company, BSkyB, confirmed that it was in talks with its largest shareholder, 21st Century Fox, about acquiring 21st Century Fox's 57.4% stake in Sky Deutschland and its 100% stake in Sky Italia. The enlarged company would be likely to be called "Sky Europe" and it will consolidate 21st Century Fox's European digital TV assets into one company. The sale was announced on 25 July 2014 which was subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The acquisition was completed on 13 November. In 2016, Sky Italia created Vision Distribution, a film distribution venture with five Italian production companies: