Italian public broadcaster RAI will discontinue DVB-T MPEG-2 broadcasts for nine of its thematic TV channels from October 20th. The change will affect Rai 4, Rai 5, Rai Movie, Rai Yoyo, Rai Sport+ HD, Rai Storia, Rai Gulp, Rai Premium and Rai Scuola, which will all switch to DVB-T MPEG-4 encoding. For the time being, […]
Netflix has expressed concern over plans by the Italian government to double the investment obligations in Italian and European programmes. The changes are laid out in the draft legislative decree that transposes the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive. Instead of 12.5 per cent of net revenue, as is currently the case, OTT players will have […]
A report by Ampere Analysis has found that, while in the last decade, pay-TV’s share of sports rights – by value – has grown by 20 per cent in Western Europe, only one in three sport fans has access to premium sport channels. Free-to-air channels reach over 800 million Europeans, leading to increased engagement in […]
From August 23rd, Italian households can apply for a subsidy towards the purchase of TV sets compatible with the new DVB T-2/HEVC Main 10 DTT transmission standard. According to a decree published by the Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico (Ministry of Economic Development), the subsidy consists of a 20 per cent discount on the purchase price […]
Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development has presented a roadmap in which it proposes the postponement of the DTT switchover from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 from September 1st 2021 to the September 1st 2022. The decision comes after both the Italian government and broadcasters realized that it is not possible to meet the initial deadlines. According to […]
Distribution360 has concluded several new deals in Europe for a wide range of its factual entertainment and documentary titles. In France, M6 has licensed There’s Something You Should Know (6 x 30), a fresh and inclusive new dating show, where suitors choose matches from telephone conversations, only for the matches to reveal a physical disability […]
Italian broadcasting group Mediaset is expecting to earn over €100 million in advertising revenues from its football coverage, reports daily Il Sole 24 Ore. During a meeting with journalists, CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi said that the 2020 budget closed “much above expectations”, while the one for 2021 “will be excellent”. He added that “ratings are […]
Ten public service broadcasters (PSBs) are set to change the way in which Europeans consume news by using online tools to overcome language barriers and share diverse content from across the continent. Led by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the broadcasters are launching ‘A European Perspective’, a collaborative news service that enables audiences to access […]
An estimated 22 million Italians watched content on a Smart TV in the period from October 1st 2020 to May 21st 2021 – a 39 per cent rise on the same period in 2019-2020. According to figures from the Studio Frasi Observatory, the overall audience dropped by 2.2 per cent, from 11.6 million to 11.3 […]
Contrary to initial Italian press reports, RAI has been awarded the exclusive Italian multi-platform (TV, digital, radio) rights to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The Italian public broadcaster will broadcast all 64 matches, of which at least 28, including the opening match, the final and both semi-finals, will be carried on flagship channel Rai […]