Rai, Rossi: “Fundamental public service. In Italy the lowest license fee in Europe”

“Maintaining the public service and making it as active as possible is fundamental” because it is the “backbone of the nation’s cultural industry”. In his first public appearance as director general of Rai, Giampolo Rossi, freshly appointed, praises the public service and defends the license fee. “Rai is the public service that has the lowest license fee in Europe, far fewer resources than the BBC or France Television can have”. Therefore – continues Rossi – “the investment capacity is directly proportional to the economic resources. In a market in which the commercial and advertising part is quite fragmented and jagged”.

The new general manager of Viale Mazzini speaks from Pescara, where ‘Cartoons on The Bay’, the annual animation festival, is underway. “I also participated as a board member, today as general manager, but there is a continuity linked to the importance of the event and the idea that Rai has towards the world of animation, which tries to intercept new languages. Rai is slowly transforming from a traditional broadcaster to a digital media company. And this world of creativity, transmediality, new languages, is a cornerstone, which is why it has an important meaning to be here”. According to Rossi “Rai Kids and Raiplay have a fundamental market role, the same thing happens for Rai Fiction and Rai Cinema”. And again: “74% of the TV series produced in Italy are from Rai. The public service also serves to transfer new languages, to represent Italy to itself but also Italy in the world, so I think this role is fundamental” .

When asked which character would make a new cartoon, the director of Rai replies that he would do it on Gabriele D’Annunzio. “He was one of the most incredible characters of Italian modernity, but he is generally represented as a sort of austere, baroque, decadent man. In reality, he is the one who invented modernity, cinema, advertising”. An “incredible character”, continues Rossi. “He was also a great man of action, as well as being the most translated Italian poet in the world after Dante Alighieri”.