Television in Italy


Television in Italy was introduced in 1939, when the first experimental broadcasts began. However, this lasted for a very short time: when fascist Italy entered World War II in 1940, all transmissions were interrupted, and were resumed in earnest only nine years after the end of the war, on January 3, 1954.
There are two main national television organisations responsible for most of the viewership: state-owned RAI, accounting for 37% of the total viewing figures in May 2014, and Mediaset, a commercial network which holds about 33%. The third largest player is the Italian branch of Warner Bros. Discovery, which has a viewing share of 5.8%, whereas the fourth largest player is Cairo Communication with a viewing share of 3.5%.
According to the BBC, the Italian television industry is widely considered both inside and outside the country to be overtly politicized. Unlike the BBC which is controlled by a board of governors regulated by Ofcom, the public broadcaster RAI is under direct control of the parliament. According to a December 2008 poll, only 24% of Italians trusted television news programmes, compared unfavourably to the British rate of 38%, making Italy one of only three examined countries where online sources are considered more reliable than television ones for information.
Terrestrial television has historically been the dominant form of transmission in the country.

History

After some early tests in the 1930s, Italy experimented first regular electronic television transmissions from July 1939 to May 1940, through the state-owned EIAR.
After the war, the state-owned RAI was established and regular transmissions began on 3 January 1954. At the end of the 1970s, local private television networks began broadcasting, among which the ones from Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest emerged in the 1980s, creating a holding that controls three major channels, opposed still today to the three ones from the RAI itself.

Television providers

Digital terrestrial television

technology has expanded rapidly and now every major network in Italy transmits in DVB-T format, while analog broadcasts were continued until the end of the transition, originally set by law to December 31, 2006, but later pushed back to the end of 2012.File:Mediaset production center, Cologno Monzese, metropolitan city of Milan, Italy.jpg|thumb|Mediaset headquarters in Cologno Monzese, near MilanThe Berlusconi II Cabinet started promoting the digital format in December 2003 by granting a public financial contribution for the purchase of a MHP digital television decoder. Starting from January 2005 Mediaset and Telecom Italia Media started offering pay TV services through a prepaid smartcard, including football games, movies and TV shows. In February 2006, during the 2006 Winter Olympics held in Turin, RAI experimentally broadcast a number of sport events using a 1080i signal and H264 coding. The HD signal has been transmitted over the Turin area, using DVB-T hierarchical modulation, and only specially crafted decoders have been able to receive this signal: they were placed in strategical points in the town.
During the UEFA Euro 2008 and the 2008 Summer Olympics, RAI started experimental high definition broadcasting on Rai Test HD, available only in Turin, Milan, Rome, Sardinia and Aosta Valley, continuing with the 2008 UCI Road World Championships and a few matches of the UEFA Champions League. In July 2008 the European Commission's directorate for competition expressed concerns on whether the actions taken by the current Italian government would be able to alter the current status of duopoly in the broadcasting market held by RAI and Mediaset. Beginning October 31, 2008, in the first region of Italy planned to interrupt analog transmission, Sardinia, television networks broadcast multiplexes only in digital format. Licence fee payers from the region were entitled to a 50 euros discount off the price of a digital television decoder or a new, digital-compatible TV set.
In April 2021, Byoblu began a national broadcaster and the first Italian TV network that was financially supported by private citizen's donations.

Satellite television

Italy has had digital satellite broadcasts since the 1990s, with the launch of Stream TV and TELE+. In 2003 these merged into Sky Italia, today this pay TV platform is broadcasting from Hot Bird satellites. HDTV regular services started in June 2006 under the name Sky HD, with the broadcasting of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in High Definition. As of today, almost all channels on the platform broadcasts in HD. Tivù Sat, a Free Satellite Service similar to the UK version Freesat, was launched in June 2009, ensuring access to national television channels from digital terrestrial television networks. Shareholders include Mediaset, Telecom Italia Media and the State-owned company Rai.

Pay television

Current providers

In the 1960s the public television network RAI was a monopoly and the only network authorized to broadcast in Italy. Giuseppe Sacchi, a former RAI editor, launched on April 21, 1971, the first "free" television station, called Telebiella and based in Biella. It started to broadcast on April 6, 1972, devoted primarily to news and information. Immediately the government led by Giulio Andreotti forced Sacchi to dismantle Telebiella. Later a new law was issued to regulate and allow cable broadcasting, although with tight limitations: only one cable system for every city and only one TV channel for each system. Cable television remained undeveloped for many years, with the exception of a few amateur projects. In the 1990s, first Telecom Italia and then Fastweb created optical fiber networks and launched their IPTV offers. IPTV was the only service to offer video on demand up until 2009.

List of nationwide television stations

All channels broadcast 24 hours, and are in 16:9 format. On satellite, as a result of restrictions on broadcasting rights, most of RAI's channels are permanently encrypted, and broadcast free-to-view through the Tivúsat platform, or are temporarily encrypted when needed. However, Rai 1, 2, 3, Storia, Scuola and Gulp are left unencrypted.
The channels from 10 to 19 are made available for Italian regional television.

RAI – [Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A.">RAI">RAI – [Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A.]

Rai is Italy's national public broadcasting company, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Rai's broadcasts are also able to be received in neighboring countries, including Albania, Croatia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Slovenia, Vatican City, southern Switzerland, and across Europe on satellite. It is one of the 23 founding broadcasting organizations of the European Broadcasting Union.
ChannelLaunchedDescription
Rai 11954generalist
Rai 21961generalist
Rai 31979generalist
Rai 42008generalist, TV series, movies and entertainment for young audience
Rai 52010cultured-oriented entertainment, documentaries
Rai Movie1999movies
Rai Premium2010the best of RAI's past programs
Rai Gulp2007cartoons, TV series and entertainment programs for teens
Rai Yoyo2006cartoons and shows for pre-school children
Rai News 24199924h news
Rai Storia2009documentaries focused on history
Rai Sport HD1999live sports and sports news
Rai Scuola1999 educational
Rai Radio 2 Visual2020radio broadcast and news

Mediaset S.p.A.">Mediaset">Mediaset S.p.A.

Mediaset is the largest commercial broadcaster in Italy. The group competes primarily against the public broadcaster and market leader RAI. Due to their proximity to Italy, Albania, Croatia, Switzerland, Malta, San Marino, the Vatican City and Slovenia can also receive Mediaset broadcasts. In addition to their domestic television channels, Mediaset also operates a series of news, entertainment and sport websites; owns 50.1% of the Spanish broadcasting firm Mediaset España Comunicación; owns the film production company Medusa Film; and heads a consortium which owns the television production house Banijay.
ChannelLaunchedDescription
Rete 41982generalist
Canale 51980generalist
Italia 11982generalist
202018generalist, oriented to movies, TV series and sport events
Iris2007TV series, movies and cultured-oriented programs
27 Twentyseven2022TV series and movies
La52010TV series, movies, entertainment, reality shows, female-oriented channel
Cine342020Italian movies of all time
Focus2018documentaries
Top Crime2013TV series and movies on the world of crime
Italia 22011TV series, movies, entertainment, reality shows, male-oriented channel
TgCom242011all news
Mediaset Extra2010past and current cult shows from Mediaset channels
Radio 105 TV2019radio broadcast and news
R101 TV2014radio broadcast and news
Virgin Radio TV2018radio broadcast and news
Radio Monte Carlo TV2020only on FTV satellite