Publishing

Antenna, what the Greek group is doing in negotiations with Gedi

Antenna is an international giant with over 30 years of experience in the television industry: it owns 37 TV channels, including free-to-air and pay-TV platforms, broadcast in Europe, North America and Australia

12 December 2025

Il presidente di Stellantis e CEO di Exor John Elkann gesticola mentre parla durante l'Italian Tech Week 2025, a Torino il 3 ottobre 2025. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/Foto d'archivio

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

From mass media to maritime and real estate. These are the areas of activity in which the K Group, the group of companies owned by the Greek Kyriakou family and of which Antenna is a part, has been negotiating for months with Gedi (Exor) to take over the publishing assets of the group to which La Stampa and Repubblica also belong.

Antenna is an international giant with over 30 years of experience in the television industry: it owns 37 TV channels, including free-to-air and pay-TV platforms, broadcast in Europe, North America and Australia.

Founded in 1989 with the launch of ANT1 TV in Greece, the Antenna Group owns television media that directly reach an audience of 140 million people worldwide, and a total audience of 500 million - declared by the group - thanks to its international partners.

Antenna Group, a completely private and unlisted company, defines itself as a player with a long-term vision, based on high-yield, non-speculative investments. Over the years, the Kyriakou family has built a media portfolio declared as being based on growth, international expansion and the editorial independence of the acquired brands. The strategy, the group explains, is to invest in financially distressed media assets with the aim of turning them into profitable businesses.

One example is Nova Television Bulgaria, acquired in 2000 for USD 3 million and resold in 2008 for USD 970 million. Antenna initiated an expansion strategy in South-East Europe, taking over and restructuring TV channels and broadcasters in Slovenia, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece.

Antenna Group expanded its media portfolio by acquiring 22 pay-TV channels in twelve Central and Eastern European countries. The Greek giant boasts many long-standing partnerships with international media companies, including Disney and NBCUniversal.

In 2022, the Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC), 54% owned by the Arab fund Pif, invested $248.81m in Antenna Greece BVacquisition of a 30% minority stake, while Antenna Group, led by its chairman, Theodore Kyriakou, retains full control of the remaining 70% of the holding company. To date, the scope of the partnership between the two companies is limited to the Greek market.

Antenna Group also has an ongoing strategic partnership with Vice Media Group, initiated in 2014, which has enabled Vice to expand its presence in South East Europe through the launch of digital, linear and print content through local offices.

The Greek Antenna has also had its eye on the Italian market for some time. And with this in mind, it founded Antenna Investments, a company dedicated to the development of its global media ecosystem in the United States and Europe, with the aim of investing in new foreign markets such as Poland and Italy Antenna Group also boasts a network of international relations that includes political figures such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Antenna recently announced the launch of the Alliance for Europe-Gulf Geopolitics & Investments Summit (AEGGIS), in partnership with the Atlantic Council to strengthen economic relations between European and Gulf countries.

In the promoters' intentions, AEGGIS also aims to create a 'high-level space for discussion to analyse geopolitical risks and opportunities, to help guide the thinking of European and Gulf policymakers, and to further strengthen their cooperation in addressing regional and global challenges'.

The first official AEGGIS summit will be held in Greece in 2026. The second edition - the Hellenic player says - will most likely take place in Italy.

At the helm of this empire is Theodore Kyriakou.

A graduate in International Economics and Physics from Georgetown University, Theodore Kyriakou is CEO of media company ANT1 Group and chairman and major shareholder of K Group, an international media, entertainment, digital, real estate and asset management company with operations in Europe, North America and Australia. K Group is owned by the Kyriakou family, which has been in the global shipping business for four generations, with a long history of managing, buying and selling fleets.

Through Antenna Group, founded in 1988, Theodore has developed an international portfolio of assets in media, content and entertainment, also investing in technology, media and telecommunication companies, as well as co-investing in companies such as Imagine Entertainment and TelevisaUnivision. K Group is also active in real-estate, with 22 commercial and residential properties, and through K Group Capital Partners invests in strategic sectors in Greece, including logistics, healthcare, food, energy, hospitality and tourism.

Kyriakou is on the board of The Raine Group, one of the leading investment banks in the TMT sector, and was one of the first investors in Facebook, Twitter and Spotify before they went public. He is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the Atlantic Council, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, the Board of Trustees of Georgetown University, the AdvisoryBoard of the Centre for International Business and Management (CIBAM) at the University of Cambridge, and the Business Advisory Board of the International MBA at Athens University of Economics and Business. He is Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Singapore in Athens and Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in Thessaloniki.