The History of Private TV and Radio Stations in Italy
Andrea RIVETTA (IT) Associate Editor -- Broadcast & Production (Milano)
1974
The first technical trials for cable transmissions by a private TV station, Telebiella, take place in Biella, a town in the Piedmont region of north-western Italy.
1975
A historic year: Italy’s first private radio stations begin FM transmissions despite the monopoly of the public radio and television service. Even though the Italian police seize the equipment of these radio "pioneers", by the end of the year there are 100 stations regularly broadcasting their programmes.
1976
The courts in Milan decide in favour of the private broadcaster Radio Milano International, order the release of the station’s equipment and rule that the law does not foresee a state monopoly. Article 21 of the Italian Constitution establishes the right to the freedom of expression and the matter is thus referred to the Italian Constitutional Court.
1978
The Constitutional Court rules that it is not possible to prevent private radio and TV broadcasting, and that it is up to the Italian parliament to provide the legislation necessary to regulate such activity. By the end of the year, there are an estimated 1,500 radio stations and 100 TV stations in Italy.
1980
Silvio Berlusconi appears on the broadcasting scene, announcing plans to transmit a quiz show nationwide with the collaboration of Canale 5, a grouping of local TV stations.
There are now around 2,500 private radio stations and over 500 TV stations.
1982
Berlusconi transforms Canale 5 into a national TV station and acquires Italia 1 from the Rusconi Editore publishing group and Rete 4 from the Mondadori publishing group, thus creating a private TV corporation without precedents. In the radio sphere, certain local broadcasters, like Radio 105 and Radio Deejay, begin to develop a national presence.
1984
Some judges start shutting down the national private TV and radio operations but a parliamentary decree by the Craxi government enables Berlusconi and the national radio stations to carry on broadcasting.
1985
Parliament begins debating a law on the regulation of the Italian radio and TV sector, 10 years after the first private broadcasts.
Private radio stations now number about 3,000, and TV stations over 1,000.
1990
Parliament approves the famous Mammì Law, named after Oscar Mammì, the member of parliament who presented it: the first ever law to regulate the sector. Fifteen years have passed since the first "free" broadcasts.
There are now 4,100 private radio stations and 1,400 private TV stations.
1991
The big publishing groups (beginning with L’Espresso) start acquiring private radio stations.
1992
A political and social ‘earthquake’ rocks Italy. The "Mani Pulite" (Clean Hands) anti-corruption enquiry shakes parliament and heralds a period of radical change. Telepiù launches the first satellite transmissions (as yet unheard of in Italy), while more and more local radio and TV stations are organising themselves into "syndications", groupings which share several hours of programming. The first computers are being used by stations to provide broadcast automation. Many local stations improve their programming.
1994
The 1994 general election sees Berlusconi’s first political victory, though the government he heads lasts only seven months. The "conflict of interests" issue emerges - a problem still not resolved!
In the local broadcast sector, fierce competition and the possibility of buying and selling frequencies leads to a natural concentration of companies.
There are now something like 3,500 radio stations and just over 1,000 TV stations.
1996
In the radio sector, national "circuits" begin to appear, with stations linking up basically to share news programmes. One reason for this is that the law foresees a refund of 80% of the costs for subscribers to such news services.
1998
Italian pay-TV is born. Satellite broadcasting is on the increase, also for freely accessible satellite transmissions, while cable TV is still practically non-existent.
1999
The year of new national TV licence allocations, to be followed by local ones. The provisions produce no change, however, since all stations are allowed to continue broadcasting. The first moves are made towards digital TV automation.
2000
A real revolution begins as a result of the possibility of freely concentrating ownership. As a result of the buying and selling of stations and their frequency rights, there are now about 1,400 radio stations and 600 TV stations - a phenomenon which also brings about an increase in advertising revenues and greater professionalism in the local broadcasting field. Today, most Italian radio and TV stations are computerised and most use satellite links to receive programmes and information.
Local TV stations currently attract around 10 million contacts on an average day (from a total of 23 million) while local radio stations draw around eight million listeners daily (from a total of about 30 million).
TELENOVA and the sports coverage
Fioravante CAVARRETTA (IT) Manager -- TELENOVA
Founded in Milan in 1978 by Periodici San Paolo, a catholic publishing group whose publications include the weekly magazine Famiglia Cristiana (with a circulation of over a million), Jesus, Il Giornalino, Club 3 and Vita Pastorale.
For the first three years, Telenova produced its own programming and established itself at a regional level as a "family" station. Content centred on information, with a daily news programme, ‘Telenova Notizie’, and also more in-depth reports in transmissions like ‘Prima Pagina’. Then came sports, with coverage of soccer (the ‘Milan-Inter’ programme was particularly successful), basketball, ice hockey and cycling, as well as programmes like ‘Cabina Matrimoniale’ and ‘Famiglia e Dintorni’ which deal with family issues. Programming also included music, with transmissions presented by show-business celebrities like Memo Remigi, Barbara D’Urso, Diego Abatantuono and Raffaele Pisu, plus the flagship religious transmission, ‘Jesus’.
Between 1982 and 1985, Telenova participated in a television circuit, Euro TV, which was made up of a group of local broadcasters and covered the whole of Italy. Telenova left Euro TV and, in September 1986, together with another 20 local broadcasters, set up the national TV consortium Cinquestelle, a grouping headed by Telenova.
In 1993, with the ending of the TV circuit experience and free of the restrictions imposed by membership of the consortium, Telenova was finally able to fully express its editorial line and broaden its informational and cultural reach, becoming a focal point for Church affairs in both the city of Milan and the region of Lombardy as a whole.
Today
Current Telenova programming centres on local news and information. There are six daily news programmes; sports reports, religious information and various other regular items. The experience and high degree of professionalism built up over the past 20 years or so have enabled Telenova to work on prestigious co-productions such as the ‘Frontiere dello Spirito’ (Frontiers of the Spirit) religious programme produced in collaboration with Mediaset, and other productions with Sat2000, the satellite channel of the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana, the ruling council of the Catholic church in Italy.
Market
In the difficult market of local television, still dominated by regulatory uncertainty and an excessive number of players, Telenova has earned itself a top-ranking position in the Lombardy ratings. It is seen as a full-content channel with quality programming for the whole family. The fact that it belongs to a renowned, solid and autonomous catholic publishing group strengthens its image as an independent broadcaster free of restrictions.
Sport
In recent years, programmes which cover the Italian soccer championship have become firmly established on almost all local stations in northern Italy, including Telenova.
These programmes offer live coverage of matches from reporters at the stadiums. Every Sunday, Telenova links up with 12 soccer stadiums in collaboration with a number of other broadcasters: Telenordest and Telearena for the Veneto region; GRP for Piedmont; Telegenova for Liguria; Telesanterno for Emilia Romagna and Gold TV for Lazio. Both terrestrial and satellite links are used for these transmissions.
The presenters and their studio guests are thus able to comment live on the action and also carry out interviews with players and other personalities before, during and after the game, creating a very appealing product, one which many nationwide broadcasters have imitated.