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SAT-ITALY 28.11.1997

SAT-ITALY - EDITION 44/97 - November 28th 1997 -
Italian Satellite and Media news edited by Branislav Pekic


RAI ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR 1998
The annual "World Television Forum" was held in New York, at the UN
headquarters from November 19-21st. This traditional meeting of TV
executives is organized by the UN Information Department, the Italian
Ministry for foreign affairs and the two major Italian broadcasters, RAI
and Mediaset. During the event, RAI's top managers announced the company's
plans for the year 1998. Special emphasis will be given to a structural
reorganization of the company and it's international activities. 
There will be changes at the satellite channel RAI International, RAI Trade
(in charge of selling RAI's programs to foreign customers),
RaiCinemaFiction (responsible for international co-productions) and the
RaiSat digital thematic channels. It has been confirmed that RAI will
participate in the launch of a new satellite TV and radio channel called
EuroMed aimed at the Mediterranean countries. 
Federica Olivares, a member of RAI's administrative council presented the
results of a research conducted by KPMG which shows that the major European
broadcasters have revenues of more than 5 billion dollars which is twice as
much as RAI's revenues, while the major international broadcasters have a
revenue which is 4 times bigger than RAI's. She underlined that in the
future, priority will be given to strategic alliances with international
partners.
Carlo Sartori who is in charge of RAI's thematic digital TV channels said
that public TV broadcasters should launch thematic TV channels which
represent the television of the future. He underlined that these new
channels should be free-of-charge in order to have a larger potential
audience. Sartori's intervention was very positively received by many
public broadcasters present in New York, but was criticized by some private
TV stations that think that thematic satellite channels have to be
scrambled and not free-to-air.
The president of RAI, Enzo Siciliano said he has some reserves on launching
a specialized satellite TV channel devoted to promoting literature. The
request for such a channel was recently made by the Italian minister for
culture, Walter Veltroni who also proposed that RAI consider the
possibility of a daily news bulletin devoted to cultural events. At the
closing ceremony of the "World Television Forum", Siciliano proposed two
important initiatives - a huge worldwide "Telethon" for gathering funds for
war victims which will take place on November 21st 1998 and the realization
of a program on the 1900's which will be based on images from the archives
of public TV stations throughout the world.
- In occasione della presentazione del «World Television Forum», che si e
svolto nella sede delle Nazioni Unite a New York dal 19 al 21 novembre, il
vertice della RAI ha annunciato il progetto di riorganizzazione aziendale e
di alleanze strategiche con partner internazionali. La RAI, attuerà nei
primi mesi del '98 il riassetto delle proprie attività internazionali:
riguarderà Rai International, la nuova RaiTrade, che dovrà vendere il
prodotto nel mondo, le coproduzioni internazionali di RaiCinemaFiction, i
canali tematici digitali di RaiSat. Intanto la RAI se prepara per i lancio
di EuroMed, canale TV e radio per i Paesi del Mediterraneo. 
Carlo Sartori, responsabile dei canali tematici Rai, ha sostenuto che le TV
pubbliche debbono fare anche tv tematica che rappresenta la tv di domani,
ma devono farla gratuitamente "per assicurare a tutti e non solo a chi paga
la qualità". Una strategia che è piaciuta a molti operatori pubblici, meno
ai privati che come Confalonieri vorrebbero che le tv tematiche fossero
solo a pagamento. 
Sulla richiesta del vicepresidente del Consiglio Walter Veltroni per un
canale via satellite degli editori dedicato alla promozione dei libri,
Siciliano ha avanzato qualche riserva: "Tutto ciò che può aiutare la
lettura va benissimo, ma non bisognerà limitarsi alla promozione dei
"best-seller". Siciliano ha anche lanciato due proposte - un "Telethon"
mondiale, da tenersi il 21 novembre '98, per la raccolta di fondi a favore
dei bambini vittime delle guerre; e una storia del 900 realizzata con le
immagini degli archivi delle tv pubbliche del mondo. 


MEDIASET CONFIRMS LAUNCH OF U.S. CHANNEL
At the "World Television Forum", the president of the private Italian TV
holding company Mediaset, Fedele Confalonieri, announced the creation of a
special division called Mediaset International which will be in charge of
worldwide distribution of television programs from the Milan based company.
Confalonieri added that negotiations with potential partners and cable
operators are already in an advanced stage and in some cases agreements
have been signed. If things go as planned, Mediset International will be
operative as of January 1st 1998.
- Mediaset rilancia la sfida con la RAI anche all'estero. Il presidente
Fedele Confalonieri ha annunciato
la nascita di una divisione che si occuperà di trasmettere i programmi
televisivi del gruppo milanese a livello mondiale. I negoziati sono già in
una fase avanzata e in alcuni casi sono già stati sottoscritti degli
accordi, e se tutto procederà secondo i tempi previsti, Mediaset
International diventerà operativa a partire dal gennaio prossimo. 


LICENSE FEE REVENUES ON THE INCREASE
The Italian public broadcaster RAI has announced its budget figures, which
sees an increase in the number of people paying the TV license fee. At the
same time, there has also been an increase in the number of Italians who
own a TV set but are not paying the license fee. Their number is estimated
to be around 581,000.
During the fiscal year 1996, there have been 298,000 new license fee issued
which brings the total number of Italians supposed to be paying it to more
than 16 million (81,43% of the total population). A close review of the
documentation showed however that 15.533.399 were regularly paying the fee,
with 581,000 not doing so. In any case, revenues from the license fee have
increased in 1996 and totaled 2,410 million DM (49 million more than in
1995). It is worth noting that the cost of the license fee has increased in
the same period from 158 DM to 162 DM.
- Aumentano gli abbonati alla RAIi, ma allo stesso tempo cresce anche il
numero degli italiani che, pur individuati come possessori di un
televisore, non pagano il canone: sono 581 mila. Il dato emerge dall'ultimo
bilancio RAI. Nel 1996 sono stati acquisiti dall'azienda radiotelevisiva
poco meno di 298 mila nuovi abbonamenti per un totate di oltre 16 milioni
di italiani "iscritti a ruolo", e, pertanto, tenuti a pagare il canone. Si
tratta di un dato che arriva a toccare l'81,43% dell'utenza potenziale. 


DIGITAL TV  PROSPECTS
The director general of RAI, Franco Iseppi recently denied newspaper
reports of a crisis affecting terrestrial TV channels in Italy due to a
significant drop in audience figures. Iseppi said that there was a small
drop last spring, but taking in account the whole year, RAI only lost in
total 81,000 viewers. In the same period, RAI's principal rival, Mediaset
reported 177,000 less viewers for it's 3 channels (Rete 4, Canale 5 and
Italia 1). RAI's director general conceded that viewers are dissatisfied
with the general entertainment terrestrial channels and there is a lot of
interest in the new technologies such as digital satellite TV.  He said
that the Italian public broadcaster will invest into the development of
these new services and a recent market survey showed that 19% of viewers
wants to receive them. He also announced that by next week, there will be
an announcement on the nomination of the president of Newco, the joint
venture between RAI and Stet, which will be in charge of launching new
thematic satellite channels.
- Il direttore generale della RAI, Franco Iseppi, ha dichiarato in una
intervista che non esiste una fuga di telespettarori. "C'è stata in
primavera ma è già rientrata. Nell'anno la Rai ha perso in tutto 81 mila
spettatori e Mediaset 177 mila. C'è una crisi in rispetto alla vecchia tv e
un'enorme aspettativa di novità tecnologiche che non viene ancora
soddisfatta. La prossima settimana sarà nominato il presidente della
società che si occupa del prodotto, la  nuova Newco. Le indagini di mercato
dicono che il 19% degli utenti, una cifra enorme, aspetta le innovazioni
tecnologiche". 


NEWS IN BRIEF
- Good news for Italian football fans. The Croatian channel HRT3 last
weekend showed live Italian league football and it remains to be seen if
this will continue. HRT 3 is transmitted in clear MPEG-2 via the EUTELSAT
HOT BIRD 3 satellite, frequency 12.303 GHz/Ver.
- Bad news for RAI International viewers in Europe. The international
service of the Italian public broadcaster has scrambled its digital signal
on the EUTELSAT HOT BIRD 1 satellite and is now only officially available
on cable systems throughout Europe. The scrambling system used is DMV/NTL.


PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS ON RAI TV CHANNELS FOR WEEK NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 6
(All times Central European)

MOVIES
30.XI
RAI UNO, 20:35h - Bambi (USA-1942) - Walt Disney animated feature
RAI DUE, 20:50h - Poliziotti (Italy-1994), starring: Claudio Amendola,
Michele Placido
01.XII
RAI UNO, 20:50h - Dave (USA-1993), starring: Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver
02.XII
RAI UNO, 20:50h - Rennaissance man (USA-1994), starring: Danny de Vito,
Gregory Hines
RAI DUE, 20:50h - Don Miliani - Il priore di Barbiana, Part I (Italy),
starring: Sergio Castellitto
RAI DUE, 00:35h - Queen of outer space (USA-1958), starring: Zsa Zsa Gabor,
Eric Fleming
03.XII
RAI UNO, 20:50h - Unforgivable (USA-1996), starring: John Ritter, Harley
Jane Kozak
RAI DUE, 20:50h - Don Miliani - Il priore di Barbiana, Part II (Italy),
starring: Sergio Castellito
RAI DUE, 00:35h - Cross Country (USA-1983), starring: Richard Beymer
04.XII
RAI TRE, 20:45h - Code of silence (USA-1985), starring: Chuck Norris, Henry
Silva
05.XII
RAI UNO, 22:50h - Ultimi giorni da noi (Australia-1991), starring: Lisa
Harrow, Bruno Ganz
06.XII
RAI DUE, 20:50h - Deadly passion (USA-1995), starring: Bruno Wolkowich,
Natacha Indinger

Note:	All movies transmitted in the prime time slot are subtitled on RAI's
teletext pages 777 (Italian) and 778 (English)

SPORT
30.XI
RAI DUE, 19:00h - Basketball: All Star Game - live from Florence
01.XII
RAI TRE, 22:55h - Boxing: World title fight (WBU) in middleweight category,
Silvio Branco-Moya Garcia
03.XII
RAI TRE, 15:40h - Basketball: Qualifiers for European championship,
Italy-Sweden
04.XII
RAI TRE, 15:40h - Basketball (women): Italian league, CarlParma-Messina
RAI UNO, 16:35h - Football: Europe-Rest of the World - live from Marseille
RAI UNO, 19:00h - Football: Draw for World Cup'98
05.XII
RAI TRE, 16:05h - Tennis: European Cup from Reggio Calabria
RAI TRE, 16:30h - Volleyball (women): Italian league
06.XII
RAI TRE, 16:40h - Tennis: European Cup from Reggio Calabria
RAI TRE, 17:30h - Volleyball: Italian league 


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