Three parties from Mr. Dzurinda's previous coalition are expected to join with the recently formed pro-business party of a television magnate, Pavol Rusko.

In December he wrote to Silvio Berlusconi, a Milan-based real estate and television magnate, that offered Christmas greetings and asked for the millionaire's "solidarity" with Badolato.

A television magnate, Roberto Marinho, was lending his private helicopter and yacht for a cruise in the Bay of Angra dos Reis, south of the city.

Indeed, Mr. Berlusconi, a television magnate turned politician, likens the changes he envisages in the state's role in the Italian economy to the ideas of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, who attacked entrenched labor power.

Mr. Yushchenko's party, Our Ukraine, nominated Petro O. Poroshenko, a chocolate manufacturer and television magnate who served as national security adviser until he resigned last September in the face of accusations of corruption.

Among his students was television magnate Moses Znaimer.

Emilio Azcarraga, a Mexican television magnate and Vázquez' biggest rival, was setting up a Spanish-language television network in the United States when he read reports of Foa's firing.

One can imagine television magnates bellowing, "Who needs all these goofy kayakers and archers?

The new government will include Christian Democrats, ethnic Hungarians and the pro-business party of a television magnate, Pavol Rusko.

Mr. Berlusconi is Italy's leading television magnate.