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| Country | Italy |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Worldwide |
| Programming | |
| Languages | Italian English (Paparazzi and limited subtitled programming) |
| Picture format | 1080iHDTV (downscaled to16:9576i/480i for theSDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | RAI through Rai Internazionale |
| Sister channels | Rai 1,Rai 2,Rai 3,Rai 4,Rai 5 |
| History | |
| Launched | April 1996; 29 years ago (April 1996) |
| Former names | Rai International (1992–2008) |
| Links | |
| Website | www.raitalia.it |
Rai Italia is the internationalItalian language television service of Rai Com, a subsidiary ofRAI,Italy's public national broadcaster. Rai Italia operates a television network that broadcasts around the world via four localized feeds. Programming features a mix of news, discussion-based programs, drama and documentaries as well as sports coverage.
The broadcast of the signal, sent from the Saxa Rubra television production center inRome, is broadcast through several satellite, cable, IPTV and OTT platforms, as a paid service in the Americas, Africa and Australia while in Asia it is a FTA channel.
Rai Italia's history can be traced back to the setup of the American subsidiaryRai 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 gotan 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 (eitherTG1 orTG2), 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 inMontevideo, Rai distributed tapes of its content to broadcasters, entitites and institutions that were unable to pick up the satellite signal.
In April 1996, the channel upgraded to 24-hour broadcasts asRai International. The channel was divided in three feeds:Rai International 1 for America,Rai International 2 for Australia andRai International 3 for Africa.[1] That same year, it started broadcasting toDish Network as a subscription option.[2] In December, it launched onOptus Vision, as part of a raft of ethnic channels added to the provider.[3]
Its infrastructure was used in October 1997 to carry the FAO-backed Telefood telethon, where, in addition to the carriage of the event (also shown onRai Due), it was tasked to downlink to television channels in the sixty participating countries.[4] That same month, it announced the creation of Italica, an online project dedicated to Italian culture.[5] Still during fall 1997, it started carryingMiss Italia's sister contest, Miss Italia nel mondo, after a controversy erupted the previous year involving Danny Mendez, raising awareness about the competition.[6]
In April 2001, Rai International signed a carriage agreement withTime Warner Cable. The channel was initially carried in the NY-NJ head-end but would expand to the US East Coast at a later date. Major hotels and 50 US universities now received its signal.[7]
The channel applied to the CRTC in 2003 in order to broadcast in Canada. At the time, the channel had a shadow audience of 10,000 viewers who watched its signal illegally using satellite decoders.[8] The regulator finally approved it on 13 May 2005, after a long period of requests from the country's Italian community, under the condition that it would be provided alongside basic cable channelTelelatino.[9]
The channel changed its name to Raitalia on March 30, 2008,[10][11] adopting a new logo based on the spherical designs of Italian artistArnaldo Pomodoro, using the spheres of the UN headquarters and theMinistry of Foreign Affairs (Italy) as references.[12] In 2009, it was restyled to the currentRai Italia, adopting a logo matching the Rai channels.
From 18 May 2010, following a reduction plan approved unanimously by the Council of Administrators, Rai Italia ceased all of its original productions. From 7 October 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.[13] There were plans to launch a standalone English service, but these were scrapped. Simultaneously, the channel's distribution to Europe began, with over three million Italian immigrants registered in Europe according to 2022 AIRE data.[14] Agreements with OTT providers in Spain and the United Kingdom were signed in December 2023.[15]
Rai Italia is targeted at Italianexpatriates,foreign citizens of Italian descent, and non-Italians interested inItalian language andculture; 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.[13] The total potential audience is estimated to surpass 120 million.[16]
Rai Italia started international television broadcasting onNew Year's Day 1992 asRai International, Rai Italia has worked under an agreement with theItalian 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 fromItalian communities abroad.
Rai Italia broadcasts three television channels, via satellite, which vary according to the different geographical targets. No service is available forEurope 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:
In Europe, Rai Italia has broadcast for a short period (2008-2009) of timesharing withRai Med (Arabic language entertainment,FTA), but this broadcast has ended.[10]
83% of the annual output consists of productions from the three main Rai channels. The remaining 17% consists of original productions, which were boosted following the creation of the Rai Italy unit in 2022.[13]
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 ofRaiPlay.[13]
