What's going on?

Italian big spending found friends in Europe for a change on Wednesday: Mediaset, Italy�s largest broadcaster, announced it had bought a 10% stake in Germany�s ProSiebenSat.1.

What does this mean?

Mediaset wants European media companies to join forces to stand a better chance against global rivals. The imaginatively named company may hope its set of market-leading Italian and Spanish businesses can complement Prosieben�s German-speaking audience as the two try to make some of their investments go further together. But they�re up against Netflix�s estimated $15 billion war chest to spend on new content this year � and it just picked up the rights to the two best films at this year�s Cannes Film Festival.

Why should I care?

For markets: It�s hard for Europeans to be American.

European media companies have tried to mirror their American cousins by buddying up. But while US regulators approved Disney and Fox�s fairytale marriage and telecoms leviathan AT&T�s timely purchase of media giant Time Warner last year, European officials forced French media conglomerate Vivendi to split off most of its near-30% stake in Mediaset � and then blocked Mediaset�s attempt to partner with Sky�s Italian arm (now in Comcast�s hands) to limit their influence. Still, Vivendi�s television studio Canal+ announced a $1 billion acquisition of an independent pay-TV company this week, perhaps looking to follow in Netflix�s golden footsteps.

For you personally: Square eyes seem unavoidable.

Television�s been a fixture in living rooms for as long as most of us can remember. And while Netflix, Amazon, and soon Disney may displace some traditional TV, they�re all competing for eyeball time with social media, games, books � and occasionally even family. That desire to hold viewers� attention may partly explain the rise of oft-surreal and frequently questionable �reality TV�. Still, daytime TV may catch a break with Germany�s unemployment rate rising this month for the first time since 2013. Cue a few more idle eyes on whatever�s trending�