Italy’s RAI relaunches thematic channel offer
April 23, 2019
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Italian public broadcaster RAI is closing two thematic channels, while at the same time launching one new TV channel.
The channels that will close are Rai Movie (dedicated to movies) and Rai Premium (repeats of recently aired TV series on the main Rai channels).
In addition, the existing Rai 4 channel will now be targeted at a male audience, while female viewers will get a completely new channel called Rai 6, resulting from the merger of Rai Premium and Rai Movie.
According to RAI, the closure of Rai Movie does not mean the reduction of the amount of movies being aired, as Rai 1, Rai 2, Rai 3, Rai 4, Rai 5, and the new English language channel will increase their Italian movie output.
The broadcaster recalls that, in 2018, Rai Movie aired a total of 360 unique movies, each of them repeated 10-12 times a year, while the new strategic plans foresees that the number of movies aired will be increased, with a special focus on Italian and European productions.
In 2018, Rai Movie achieved an average audience share of 1.24 per cent in prime time, while Rai Premium had 1.8 per cent share.