Italian Television
Television in Italy was introduced in 1939, when the first experimental broadcasting began. However, this lasted for a very short time, once fascist Italy entered World War II in 1940 and all the transmission was interrupted, and was resumed in earnest only nine years after the end of the conflict, in 1954. There are two main national television organizations responsible for most of the viewing: state-owned RAI Radiotelevisione italiana (with three generalist channels, two semi-generalist channels and nine thematic channels),funded by a yearly mandatory license fee and Mediaset (owner of generalist stations Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4, eight thematic channels and a pay-tv with cinema, tv series, documentaries, sport and children channels), commercial network that also holds 50.1% of the Spanish broadcasting firm Mediaset España Comunicación and heads a consortium which owns the television production house Endemol.
Since the 1980s, after the transition to a free market, the Italian TV system became a “duopoly” with RAI and Mediaset gathering 90% of the audience. The three Mediaset (at that time called Fininvest) channels were launched between 1978 and 1982. Mediaset's channels tilt toward entertainment and advertising. They owe their popularity to TV series and films imported from the US, to Japanese cartoons and to telenovelas imported from South America and Mexico. At least in the beginning, RAI displayed a more cautious attitude toward foreign imports, as it had to combine a need to maximize audience ratings with the necessity to construct a national brand image separate from that of Mediaset, its main competitor. Over the years RAI has modified its offers in order to keep up with its competitors. Today, RAI seems to find it more and more difficult to characterize itself as a public broadcasting company with its offerings, in terms of genre composition, which are similar to Mediaset programming with a large number of reality shows, quiz shows, both foreign and Italian TV series and TV movies, talk shows and infotainment programs.
Initially, Mediaset channels did not offer news broadcasts until the first one started in 1991, on Canale 5 (Tg5), after Legge Mammì stated that commercial TV channels too should offer news. Today, the evening news broadcasts on Mediaset channels (Tg5, Tg4 and Studio Aperto) are competitive with public television news programs. It took a while for Mediaset to schedule news bulletins because there was important difference between RAI and Mediaset during the first 10 years of duopoly (since the launch of Mediaset channels to the mid-1990s), that is, their attitude toward politics. News, politics and, more in general, the representation of Italian public life, had a large space on RAI schedules. On the contrary, Mediaset channels were more attune to the values of the private sphere, in which addressing controversial issues from politics, news and current affairs was likely to jeopardize the network’s goal of gathering the largest audience possible. It can be said that RAI addressed citizens, whereas Mediaset tried to talk to consumers. Its model spectator was the “ordinary Joe,” believed to be far from the public sphere, apolitical and interested in the representation of everyday problems, family life, and consumption (these were thematic preoccupations that Mediaset’s large offer of US serials, sitcoms and soap operas particularly matched).
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the non-print media system was still dominated by television. Recently, however, Italian audiences have begun to turn away from generalist television, both because of its program content and because of increased use of the Internet for both entertainment and access to news. The Italian television industry is widely considered both inside and outside the country to be overtly politicized. The public broadcaster RAI is, unlike the BBC which is controlled by an independent trust, under direct control of the government. According to a December 2008 poll, only 24% of Italians trust television news programs, compared unfavorably 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. TV journalism is more sensationalist and less complex than the traditional written word in the Italian Press. Since the largest audiences for news are TV audiences, TV basically sets the stage for what printed journalism must cover. There has been an important change in the role of the news-consuming public in Italy in the past 20 years, where the average citizen in today's public sphere must possess his or her own political point of view and must have a strong emotional response to the sensationalized political events. There has also been speculation by critics as to whether the new dramatization in TV and press will draw citizens closer to politics or contribute to their progressive withdrawal from it.
Since the 1980s, after the transition to a free market, the Italian TV system became a “duopoly” with RAI and Mediaset gathering 90% of the audience. The three Mediaset (at that time called Fininvest) channels were launched between 1978 and 1982. Mediaset's channels tilt toward entertainment and advertising. They owe their popularity to TV series and films imported from the US, to Japanese cartoons and to telenovelas imported from South America and Mexico. At least in the beginning, RAI displayed a more cautious attitude toward foreign imports, as it had to combine a need to maximize audience ratings with the necessity to construct a national brand image separate from that of Mediaset, its main competitor. Over the years RAI has modified its offers in order to keep up with its competitors. Today, RAI seems to find it more and more difficult to characterize itself as a public broadcasting company with its offerings, in terms of genre composition, which are similar to Mediaset programming with a large number of reality shows, quiz shows, both foreign and Italian TV series and TV movies, talk shows and infotainment programs.
Initially, Mediaset channels did not offer news broadcasts until the first one started in 1991, on Canale 5 (Tg5), after Legge Mammì stated that commercial TV channels too should offer news. Today, the evening news broadcasts on Mediaset channels (Tg5, Tg4 and Studio Aperto) are competitive with public television news programs. It took a while for Mediaset to schedule news bulletins because there was important difference between RAI and Mediaset during the first 10 years of duopoly (since the launch of Mediaset channels to the mid-1990s), that is, their attitude toward politics. News, politics and, more in general, the representation of Italian public life, had a large space on RAI schedules. On the contrary, Mediaset channels were more attune to the values of the private sphere, in which addressing controversial issues from politics, news and current affairs was likely to jeopardize the network’s goal of gathering the largest audience possible. It can be said that RAI addressed citizens, whereas Mediaset tried to talk to consumers. Its model spectator was the “ordinary Joe,” believed to be far from the public sphere, apolitical and interested in the representation of everyday problems, family life, and consumption (these were thematic preoccupations that Mediaset’s large offer of US serials, sitcoms and soap operas particularly matched).
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the non-print media system was still dominated by television. Recently, however, Italian audiences have begun to turn away from generalist television, both because of its program content and because of increased use of the Internet for both entertainment and access to news. The Italian television industry is widely considered both inside and outside the country to be overtly politicized. The public broadcaster RAI is, unlike the BBC which is controlled by an independent trust, under direct control of the government. According to a December 2008 poll, only 24% of Italians trust television news programs, compared unfavorably 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. TV journalism is more sensationalist and less complex than the traditional written word in the Italian Press. Since the largest audiences for news are TV audiences, TV basically sets the stage for what printed journalism must cover. There has been an important change in the role of the news-consuming public in Italy in the past 20 years, where the average citizen in today's public sphere must possess his or her own political point of view and must have a strong emotional response to the sensationalized political events. There has also been speculation by critics as to whether the new dramatization in TV and press will draw citizens closer to politics or contribute to their progressive withdrawal from it.