The chapter offers a brief history of Children's Television (CT) in Italy as a significant part of the Italian television system and its political and cultural economy. The research perspective takes into account four constitutive factors: the technological dimension, relative to the technical modalities of production and distribution of TV contents; the political dimension, which results in the regulatory framework; the economic dimension, which involves the industrial and financial nature of broadcasting to children and young people; and finally the cultural dimension, which refers to contents and textualities of programming, social meanings, shared values, cultural heritage, and professionals involved in the design of CT. From a historiographical point of view, the chapter presents a scan in four main phases: 1. The public service monopoly (1954-1975), characterized by the educational mission assumed by the public service concessionaire RAI as part of its national cultural policy; 2. Deregulation and commercial competition (1976-1990), characterized by competition between RAI and the commercial model introduced in Italy by Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest. The struggle for audience shifts the content provisions towards pure entertainment and opens up to new television markets, especially the Japanese one. 3. Globalization, digitalization and thematic multichannel (1990-2012), marked by technological revolutions (satellite and DTT). Italian CT is characterized by: the multiplication of players, especially multinational, strong of the large US libraries; the coexistence of (premium) pay and free TV channels; a new season of legal and economic regulation, led in part by the European Union in order to protect children; migration of children's programming from generalist to thematic TV; 4. Chlidren's multiplatform TV (2012-onward), characterized by digital convergence and multiplatform supply. CT extends to new video on demand services (e.g. Disney+ or Netflix) and social network websites and apps (e.g. YouTube Kids) that contribute to expanding the range of content, and changing the way of consumption, increasingly individual and mobile.
Aroldi, P., Balancing Cultural and Economic Value: The Italian Way to Children’s Television (1954– 2021), in Gozansky, Y. (ed.), Histories of Children’s Television Around the World, Peter Lang, New York 2023: 181- 199 [https://hdl.handle.net/10807/227494]
Balancing Cultural and Economic Value: The Italian Way to Children’s Television (1954– 2021)
Aroldi, Piermarco
2023
Abstract
The chapter offers a brief history of Children's Television (CT) in Italy as a significant part of the Italian television system and its political and cultural economy. The research perspective takes into account four constitutive factors: the technological dimension, relative to the technical modalities of production and distribution of TV contents; the political dimension, which results in the regulatory framework; the economic dimension, which involves the industrial and financial nature of broadcasting to children and young people; and finally the cultural dimension, which refers to contents and textualities of programming, social meanings, shared values, cultural heritage, and professionals involved in the design of CT. From a historiographical point of view, the chapter presents a scan in four main phases: 1. The public service monopoly (1954-1975), characterized by the educational mission assumed by the public service concessionaire RAI as part of its national cultural policy; 2. Deregulation and commercial competition (1976-1990), characterized by competition between RAI and the commercial model introduced in Italy by Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest. The struggle for audience shifts the content provisions towards pure entertainment and opens up to new television markets, especially the Japanese one. 3. Globalization, digitalization and thematic multichannel (1990-2012), marked by technological revolutions (satellite and DTT). Italian CT is characterized by: the multiplication of players, especially multinational, strong of the large US libraries; the coexistence of (premium) pay and free TV channels; a new season of legal and economic regulation, led in part by the European Union in order to protect children; migration of children's programming from generalist to thematic TV; 4. Chlidren's multiplatform TV (2012-onward), characterized by digital convergence and multiplatform supply. CT extends to new video on demand services (e.g. Disney+ or Netflix) and social network websites and apps (e.g. YouTube Kids) that contribute to expanding the range of content, and changing the way of consumption, increasingly individual and mobile.
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