Rai Italia is the international

Italian language Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...

television service of Rai Com, a subsidiary of RAI,

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

'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 in

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, 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.

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 Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, 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 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.

Audience

Rai Italia is targeted at Italian

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

s, foreign citizens of Italian descent, and non-Italians interested in

and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

; 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. The total potential audience is estimated to surpass 120 million. Rai Italia started international television broadcasting on

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

1992 as Rai International, Rai Italia has worked under an agreement with the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

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

communities abroad. Rai Italia broadcasts three television channels, via satellite, which vary according to the different geographical targets. No service is available for

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

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/Africa – Broadcasts to

(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) and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

*Rai Italia Asia – Broadcasts to

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

(Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mainland China, Mongolia) *Rai Italia Australia – Broadcasts to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

In Europe, Rai Italia has broadcast for a short period of timesharing with Rai Med (

Arabic language Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

entertainment, FTA), but this broadcast has ended.

Logos

Image:Rai Italia.png, 2008–2011 Image:Rai Italia 2013.svg, 2011–2017 Image:Rai Italia - Logo 2017.svg, Since 2017

Notes and references

External links

* Official Website i
ItalianEnglish
an
Spanish
{{Subscription television channels in Australia International broadcasters Television channels and stations established in 1992 Italian-language television stations

Italia Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

History

Audience

Logos

See also

Notes and references

External links