Italy

Abstract

The Italian broadcasting market has many peculiarities. It is dominated by free-to-air terrestrial television channels and its main shortcomings can be summarised as spectrum chaos, non-enforcement of the law and market concentration (Matteucci, 2010). RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana), the Italian public service broadcaster (PSB), has a distinctive history which, in some respects, sets it apart from other European PSBs. Its mixed funding structure of advertising and licence fee, and its regulatory framework and governance, which have fostered a close relationship between the government of the day and the leadership of the corporation, are some of the most important elements defining RAI’s history. A system known as lottizzazione (the allocation of positions of power inside the broadcaster according to a quota system based on political affiliation) and the concentration of media and political power in the hands of Silvio Berlusconi, majority owner of Fininvest/Mediaset¹⁸ (the main commercial broadcaster) and three times Prime Minister (1994–95; 2001–06; 2008–11), add layers of complexity to this history (Padovani, 2010). In an environment characterised by a large number of parties and a conflict-based democracy, and poisoned by decades of an unresolved conflict of interests between Berlusconi’s private holdings and his public office, questions arise as to the health of the Italian contemporary democracy.