History
Rai 4 was launched, after a countdown, on 14 July 2008 at 21:00 CEST with the broadcast of the film Elephant . In the starting phase, it mainly had cult TV series, and films, in addition to the "home runs" of L'Isola dei Famosi and X Factor (both programs on Rai 2).
The management was entrusted to Carlo Freccero from the launch date until 4 August 2013, followed by the interim of Luigi Gubitosi until mid-October.
Channel management was originally to be under RaiSat, who also took care of RaiSat-branded package channels exclusively for Sky Italia. Rai. The company was originally to manage the channel for three years, but due to the decision to close the company on 27 April 2010, the management of Rai 4 passed directly from RaiSat to Rai instead.
Since 2012, Rai 4 has offered some short news bulletins by the editorial staff of Rai News24.
Since June 2012, a second audio channel has been active on which the original audio of many of the films and series broadcast by the channel is available.
On 17 October 2013, the Rai board of directors decided to merge the channel under the management of Rai Gold.
Since 2014 it has broadcast both semifinals of the Eurovision Song Contest.
From 13 September 2015, Rai 4 became visible on the Sky Italia platform at position 104.
On 7 December 2015, Rai 4 launched a new afternoon slot dedicated to anime, in addition to the Thursday night space, after the experimentation with the anime company Dynit. With Sword Art Online and Steins;Gate already broadcast at night, this band is dedicated to the transmission of Fairy Tail, the first anime to be purchased and voiced directly by the channel.
As announced by Rai itself during the IV meeting with Tivùsat, Rai 4 started broadcasting in high definition on 22 January 2016 on channel 110 and on Sky Italia channel 104.
From 18 February 2016, the channel and the others belonging to the Rai Gold structure have been entrusted to Angelo Teodoli, former director of Rai 2.
The same year the sport debuts: it broadcasts the opening concert of Euro 2016 commented by Filippo Solibello and Marco Ardemagni (former ESC commentators) and the 27 games of which Rai has the rights with the commentary of Gialappa's band under the title Rai dire Europeans. Given the success of this experiment, the trio will comment on Italy's friendlies and qualifying matches for the 2018 FIFA World Cup under the title Rai dire Nazionale.
From 12 September 2016, Rai 4 changed the logo together with Rai 1, Rai 2, and Rai 3, and the colour, passed from magenta to purple.
From 19 September 2016, the high-definition version also lands on digital terrestrial, on the Mux 5.
The official speaker of the network is Massimo Lodolo.
From 8 to 14 July 2018, on the occasion of the channel's 10th anniversary, a special promo graphic was introduced, a contest in which birthday wishes can be made, and a new slogan: Ten years into the future. Furthermore, the hashtag # Rai4diecianni appears under the logo.
On 13 September 2018, following the non-renewal of the contract, the channel left the Sky Italia platform.
Anime
From 24 September 2009, Rai 4 has added several anime to its programming, mostly on Rai 1. The main appointment was immediately the space of Thursday night, which usually proposed two episodes of different series. There were also transmission spaces in the morning at the weekend, in which other works found space: in the first months they were located both on Saturday and Sunday morning, but from January 2010 they began to be used only on Sundays. The morning slot was last used in the 2013/2014 season. Finally, in the summer, replicas of products already broadcast were mainly proposed.
Starting on 7 December 2015, in addition to the Thursday evening slot, an afternoon slot was introduced designed for the transmission of Fairy Tail, the first anime purchased and dubbed directly by the channel. For the first weeks, the network offered reruns of two souls broadcast on Thursday night (Sword Art Online and Steins;Gate), with the aim of making the band known to the public, and then continuing, from 11 January 2016, with the broadcasting of Fairy Tail, with the double episode: to be precise, the first is the replica of the second episode of the previous day, while the second is the new episode. There are also almost always reruns of the latest episodes broadcast early in the morning and at night. However, from June 2016 Fairy Tail was moved to nighttime, and on 4 August 2016, the series was definitively suspended after the broadcast of episode 149. This manoeuvre, combined with the failure to confirm the time slot on Thursday evening, marked up to today the end of the programming of anime on the channel.
Below is the list of anime series broadcast by Rai 4 from 2009 to 2016: all of these were purchased, dubbed, and distributed by home video distribution companies, which granted a broadcast license to the channel.
