RAI

Company name	RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana S.p.A.
Company logo
Company type	Government-owned corporation
Genre	Italian Public Broadcasting Service
Foundation	1924 as URI
Founder	Italian Government
Location city	Viale Mazzini 14, Rome|
Location country	Italy
Location
Revenue	€3210,9 million (2008)
Num employees	11698 (2008)
Divisions	Rai Cinema Rai Corporation Rai Way Sipra Rai Trade Rai Net Rai Click Rai Teche Rai Fiction Rai Eri Rai Vaticano Rai Quirinale Rai Sat Rai Uno Rai Due Rai Tre
Owner	Italian Ministry of Economic Development
Slogan	Rai, di tutti di più
Homepage	rai.it rai.tv

RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana, known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI is the biggest television company in Italy. It competes with three major private television companies, Mediaset, Telecom Italia Media and Sky Italia.

Rai operates many television channels and radio stations, broadcasting in analog terrestrial (until 2013), in digital terrestrial and in several satellite and IPTV offerings. RAI is one of the 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950.

Half of RAI's revenues come from the broadcast licence fee, half from advertising. RAI has a relatively high audience share of 42.3%.

Due to their close proximity, Albania, Switzerland, Monaco, Malta, San Marino, Vatican City, Montenegro, Slovenia and Croatia also receive broadcasts.

History

Origins

RAI started off as a privately owned company. The Unione Radiofonica Italiana (URI) was formed in 1924 by private entrepreneurs and part of the Marconi group. Granted a monopoly of radio broadcasts in 1924, URI made its first broadcast — a Haydn quartet — on the 24 October of that year. URI was developed under the Italian Postal and Telecommunications Code. This code indicated that broadcast services belonged to the state, which, at that time, was the commission of Unione Radiofonica Italiana for a minimal of six years. However when the URI's contract was up, it was succeeded to 1927 by Ente Italiano Audizioni Radiofoniche (EIAR) who later was renamed to Radio Audizioni Italiane (RAI) in 1944. For the next twenty years, RAI had made several expansive changes to their company as the market developed such as extending their charter to include television in 1952 and undergoing their final name change as Radiotelevisione Italiana in 1954.

In this year the state-controlled holding company IRI became the sole shareholder, and RAI finally began a regular television service. On January 3 at 11:00 CET, the first RAI television announcer announced the daily scheduling from the Milan office and the relay stations in Turin and Rome. At the 14:30 starts the first regular programme in the Italian television history: Arrivi e partenze, hosted by Armando Pizzo and Mike Bongiorno. The first evening show was a theatre performance, written by Carlo Goldoni: L'osteria della posta. At the 23:15 was introduced the last the program of the day: La Domenica Sportiva, a soccer television program.

Parts of the early programming was focused on educational content: during the reconstruction following World War II, programs like Non è mai troppo tardi and Un viaggio al Po made people see what life was like in other parts of Italy, in a time when tourism was out of the reach of the vast majority of the population.

2000s

A very controversial plan to partly privatise RAI, by selling 20% of the public broadcaster, was suspended in October 2005.

The fact that the Berlusconi-led government pushed for the sale of Mediaset's public service rival caused a very heated debate, with some critics claiming that Mediaset could become the buyer and thus increase its dominant position even further. However, in October 2005 it was announced that the privatisation plan had been suspended, following the revelation that the company would make a loss of €80m ($96m, £54m) during 2006. "RAI's privatisation is de facto suspended", its new director general, Alfredo Meocci, told a parliamentary watchdog committee. On May 18, 2010, Raisat received a major upgrade and re-branded with a new logo and a new name. it and all of the sister channels dropped the sat part from the name and became Rai 1, Rai 2, Rai 3, Rai 4, Rai 5, Rai Gulp, Rai YoYo, Rai Sport 1, Rai Sport 2, Rai News, Rai Sender Bozen, Rai Storia, Rai Scuola, Rai Premium, and Rai Extra.

Management

RAI is governed by a nine member Administrative Council. Seven of its nine members are elected by a parliamentary committee, the remaining two (one of which the President) are nominated by the largest shareholder: the Italian Ministry of Economic Development. The Council appoints the director-general. Both director-general and members of the administrative council are appointed for a renewable term of three years.

Notes:
: Second term.
: Temporary.
: Vice Director-general acting as Director-general.

Television

RAI broadcasts three main terrestrial channels, also available on satellite television. Rai 1, the main channel, targets the family market. Rai 2, that has broadcast since November 4, 1961 as the "Secondo Programma", has in recent years lacked clear focus, but now attempts to focus on a slightly younger audience than Rai 1. Rai 3 (on air from December 15, 1979 as "TV3") is the ‘alternative’ channel, with a definite public service remit and local programmes. Rai 1 and Rai 2 started full-time color broadcasting on February 1, 1977.

Terrestrial channels

Analog and digital terrestrial channels:

Rai 1

Rai 2

Rai 3

Rai Sender Bozen: in German, only in the province of Bolzano-Bozen few hours a day

Rai Radio TV Ladina: in Ladin, only in the province of Bolzano-Bozen and in northern province of Belluno few hours a day

Digital-only channels:

Rai 4: general entertainment

Rai 5: general entertainment

Rai Premium: mainly self produced fictions

Rai News: all news channel

Rai Gulp: kids and teens

Rai Sport 1: sport channel

Rai Sport 2: sport channel

Rai Storia: educational and cultural

Rai HD: HDTV channel.

These channels are also available on Tivù Sat platform.

Satellite channels

{| class="wikitable"|width="100%" |-valign="top" |width=50%| Free-to-air:

Rai 1 (partially crypted)

Rai 2 (partially crypted)

Rai 3 (without local programmes and partially crypted)

Rai Nettuno Sat 1: higher education

Rai News

Rai Scuola

Rai Storia

Rai Med: news and entertainment in Italian and Arabic language, timeshares with Rai News and Rai Italia

Camera dei Deputati and Senato Italiano: legislative television channels

Yes Italia: Italian culture channel for foreigners and Italians living abroad

|width=50%|

Free-to-view on Tivù Sat platform:

Rai Movie: movies

Rai Yoyo: babies

Rai Extra: entertainment

Rai Premium: tv series

These channels are also available in analog switchoff areas. |}

IPTV channels

{| class="wikitable"|width="100%" |-valign="top" |width=33,33%| On TV di FASTWEB

Rai On Cultura

Rai On Fiction

Rai On Fiction Live

Rai On News

Rai On Ragazzi

Rai On Spettacolo

Rai On Sport

|}

International

Rai Italia: broadcasts the best of RAI to International audiences

Discontinued channels

RaiSat Album (30 July 2003)

RaiSat Art (30 July 2003)

RaiSat Fiction (30 July 2003)

RaiSat Smash Girls (1 August 2009)

RaiSat Gambero Rosso Channel (1 August 2009)

Rai Azzurri: UEFA Euro 2004 (2004, broadcast using Rai Olimpia / Rai Utile frequencies)

Rai Doc: cultures, styles (1 June 2007)

Rai Futura: technologies, games, etc. (1 February 2007, broadcast on the same frequences of Rai Doc at settled times)

Rai Olimpia: 2004 Summer Olympics (2004, broadcast using Rai Utile frequencies)

Rai Utile (1 January 2008)

Rai Widescreen: 1998 FIFA World Cup (1999)

Radio channels

Rai Radio 1: News/information

Rai Radio 2: Adult Contemporary

Rai Radio 3: classical music

Rai FD4 Leggera: easy listening music, also known as IV Canale

Rai FD5 Auditorium: classic and opera music, also known as V Canale or Classica

Rai GR Parlamento: broadcasting the Italian Parliament

Rai Isoradio: for motorway users

Rai Sender Bozen: in German, only in the province of Bolzano-Bozen

Radio Trst A: in Slovene, only in Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Notturno Italiano: for the Italian communities in the EU

Rai Italia Radio: International radio service that broadcasts 'best of RAI' abroad.

Radio Rai Sport: Web Radio

News

TG1

TG2

TG3

Rai Parlamento

TGR

*GR Regione (Radio, Local)

GRR (Radio)

*GR1 (on Rai Radio 1)

*GR2 (on Rai Radio 2)

*GR3 (on Rai Radio 3)

Rai News

Logos

{| border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" style="border:1px solid #aaa" |- align=center !height="150px" bgcolor="#F9F9F9" | !height="150px" bgcolor="#F9F9F9" | |- !width="150px" colspan="1" bgcolor="#CCCCCC" | 2000–2010 !width="150px" colspan="1" bgcolor="#CCCCCC" | 2010- |}

See also

Television in Italy

Television licensing in Italy

Digital terrestrial television in Italy

Prix Italia

Footnotes

External links

http://www.rai.it/

http://www.rai.tv/

Rai on YouTube

Category:European Broadcasting Union members Category:Government-owned companies in Italy Category:Italian brands Category:Italian-language television networks Category:Orphan initialisms Category:Publicly funded broadcasters