Rai Italia is the international Italian language television service of Rai Com, a subsidiary of RAI, Italy's public national broadcaster. Rai Italia operates a television network that broadcasts around the world via 4 localized feeds. Programming features a mix of news, discussion-based programs, drama and documentaries as well as sports coverage. From 1996 to 2013, Glauco Benigni is Head of the Press International Office and Head of Promotion and Development of RAI International worldwide.
The broadcast of the signal, sent from the Saxa Rubra television production center in Rome, is broadcast through several satellite, cable, IPTV and OTT platforms, as a paid service in the Americas, Africa and Australia, whereas in Asia it is an FTA channel.
History
Rai Italia's history can be traced back to the setup of the American subsidiary Rai Corporation in 1959. The subsidiary distributed radio and television programs in the USA with special attention to the Italian-American community. Production only started in 1971, starting a two-hour programming block limited to the New York metropolitan area. The block was delivered over cable. Thirteen years later, in 1984, the schedule gets an increase of about three hours, totalling five and a half hours and a schedule containing at least a variety show, a Domenica Sportiva segment and a local newscast. The following year, the weekly schedule increased to seventeen hours: two hours a day Mondays to Fridays, one hour on Saturdays and six hours on Sundays.
From Italy, exclusively from satellite, relays of the main news (either TG1 or TG2), a Serie A soccer match and cultural and entertainment programs arrived. Then a local newscast produced by Rai Corporation was broadcast. In the early 90s, the RAI satellite network achieved coverage in 29 cities, reaching 68% of the Italian-American community. Shortly afterwards the satellite signal expanded to Latin America. Thanks to the office in Montevideo, Rai distributed tapes of its content to broadcasters, entitites and institutions that were unable to pick up the satellite signal.
In 1996 the channel upgraded to 24-hour broadcasts as Rai International. The channel was divided in three feeds: Rai International 1 for America, Rai International 2 for Australia and Rai International 3 for Africa.
The channel changed its name to Raitalia in March 2008 and in 2009 was restyled to the current Rai Italia, adopting a logo matching the Rai channels.
From May 18, 2010, following a reduction plan approved unanimously by the Council of Administrators, Rai Italia ceased all of its original productions. From October 7, 2012, however, the channel resumed producing original content for the channel, with a new program, Cristiantà, broadcast on Sunday mornings.
In November 2022, Rai announced an increase in its international television offerings over linear and its Rai Play platform. Additionally, some English-language content (mostly subtitles) was added to the daily schedule, including a news bulletin from Rai News 24.[1]
Audience
Rai Italia is targeted at Italian expatriates, foreign citizens of Italian descent, and non-Italians interested in Italian language and culture; as such the network features a mix of the best programming from Rai as well as original programming created especially for this channel. In 2022, Rai Italia claimed to have an audience of 20 to 22 million viewers.[2]
Rai Italia started international television broadcasting on New Year's Day 1992 as Rai International, Rai Italia has worked under an agreement with the Italian government to develop the presence of public service in international radio and television broadcasting. Rai Italia also strives to meet the demands for information and services from Italian communities abroad.
Rai Italia broadcasts three television channels, via satellite, which vary according to the different geographical targets. No service is available for Europe as Rai's domestic channels are widely available free-to-air in this region. Rai Italia has organized the satellite service into 4 zones with each having a different localized schedule:
Rai Italia Europe – Broadcasts to Europe (United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, France, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Spain, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Poland, Netherlands)
Rai Italia Asia – Broadcasts to Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mainland China, Mongolia)
In Europe, Rai Italia has broadcast for a short period of timesharing with Rai Med (Arabic language entertainment, FTA), but this broadcast has ended.
Programming
83% of the annual output consists of productions from the three main Rai channels. The remaining 17% consists of original productions.
Casa Italia: weekday format catering the diaspora, covering Italian topics. Presented by Roberta Ammendola.
Cristianità: weekly religious program airing for about two hours on Sundays. The format broadcasts the Holy Mass and the Angelus live from the Vatican. Presented by Myriam Casteli. The channel also broadcasts Papal audiences on Wednesdays (as a collaboration with Rai Vaticano).
Il Confronto: Half-hour weekly program discussing political and economical topics of relevance in Italy with two experts from both sides. Presented by Monica Setta.
Paparazzi: a collaboration with Rai Radio 2. The English-language program features the headlines from Italian newspapers (and also magazine covers), trending topics, and an agenda. Presented by Filippo Solibello and Marco Ardemagni.
English-language newscast from Rai News 24: created in line with the 2022 Rai Italia reforms, a five-minute news bulletin in English is shown, presented by an Italian-American journalist.
Other formats also exist, including formats about the diaspora in general, "Made in Italy" topics, documentaries about the country, etc. The content is also available on the Rai Italy section of Rai Play.
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