by Renato Franco
The CEO of Mfe: “We are growing.” The request to respect the prime time start time: “Just look each other in the eye. I’m ready.” About Giambruno “tragic-comic reconstructions”
Mediaset is getting stronger, Rai is fighting. The numbers say it. In 24 hours, Mediaset reached a share of 38.3% of the total number of private individuals, while Rai was at 35.3%, an increase of 0.5 points for the Cologno Monzese TV and a minus of 1.7 for the State television compared to the same period last year. The data refers to the current season from September 3rd to November 4th. In the 15-64 range, the commercial target – the reference target for Mediaset – the gap jumps to 11.5 points: Mediaset at 41.1%, Rai at 29.6%.
The mood of Pier Silvio Berlusconi (TV) can only be the best in a season in which Mediaset also signed two important players (Bianca Berlinguer and Myrta Merlino) and Rai lost them at the same time (Fabio Fazio, Massimo Gramellini, Lucia Annunziata and Berlinguer). Herself). “I don’t allow myself to make judgments,” says Pier Silvio Berlusconi. Our listenership has been growing for several seasons, since 2020 after the Covid emergency we have changed the pace. And at the same time Rai has become a little involved, in the sense that it has forgotten that “Rai is Rai” which means an institution and a public service. However, as soon as there is a slight decline in viewership, its reaction is to increase its commercial TV behavior in the hope of grabbing a few decimal places of market share, which does not always happen; a self-destructive behavior that is bad for the entire television system in the long run. A rich and powerful Rai (in ideas and products) was a big competitor for us, but he served to keep the standard high, because Rai is the guide of the Italian publishing system. However, if it behaves like a commercial broadcaster, this institutional role disappears.”
One immediately thinks of TeleMeloni, of these painful departures from Rai, because whoever took over is far from the contribution that the leavers made: “That’s not the point, I don’t think that Rai today – autumn 2023 – has difficulties.” the fault of the new Rai leaders who arrived a few months ago; Rather, the errors come from far away. However, those who are here today have a great opportunity that I think they want to seize: to make Rai again primarily a public service, which does not mean making boring television with black and white documentaries, but one to have identity that differentiates it from commercial television.
Specifically: focus on fiction and information, on innovating a “new” second evening by respecting the start times of the first evening. For some time now, all the most important and expensive products have been turned on almost at 10 p.m., and the expansion of access to prime time (the time slot immediately after the news, for example that of Affari Tuoi and Striscia la Notistica) threatens to open its own gate to everyone.
Pier Silvio admits: “It is a problem that started some time ago due to the competition between Striscia and Affari Tui.” But “we have now decided to stop first, by leading by example and taking the first step, even if we risk a few decimal numbers of viewers in prime time.” In this way we offered a service to the entire public and gave Rai the opportunity to do the same, so that Italian families could really follow all the programs to the end.” Here it could give a meeting point: “It would be enough to look into each other’s eyes and close at the same time.” I am ready immediately. The effects of this mechanism also affect the late evening, which no longer exists, although it would be “the right place to experiment and also to offer information products”, since Rai journalists (2,020 compared to 290 Mediaset) are a real firepower.
And as for journalism: the figures say that it was a successful bet for Mediaset Bianca Berlinguer because it shifted viewers who were previously on Rai3 from one channel to another, “on the busiest day for information”. But “we wanted to further strengthen Rete4’s offering with new features aimed at an even broader audience.” And even if “a specialist named Berlinguer seemed like a risk in Berlusconi’s networks, she is very good and the quality of the product always wins.” The choice therefore worked out “great”.
Pier Silvio Berlusconi doesn’t say it, but Myrta Merlino’s contribution was originally intended for Rete4; But then the journalist was taken aback because the suddenness of the D’Urso question opened the doors of Canale 5 to her in the afternoon: now she still has to deal with the warmth of a predominantly female audience. “We were faced with a very difficult task of making Canale 5’s afternoon program more serious and journalistic. The data is good: in terms of ratings we are at the same level as last season.” In short, Auditel’s numbers are not worrying. Maybe then one day it will be time to rethink the afternoon containers that Mfe’s CEO ultimately dislikes because they are forced to jump like crazy crickets from crime news to superficial gossip. Instead, he was “very convinced and very happy with the new Big Brother formula.” We risked going even further. In summary: “Even if it were, and it isn’t, one point less share is better than falling into disrespect.”
However, there was no comment on the Giambruno case (“I just say that I am very sorry and that I have read tragicomic reconstructions”) and a final reflection on the canon question: “Financing Rai is important, Italy is the country that devotes the fewest resources to the audiovisual sector in all of Europe. And it is a mistake, because television is not only an industry that creates jobs and related activities, but also central to the current and future identity of our country.”
November 8, 2023 (modified November 8, 2023 | 07:10)
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