Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI)

Rai, Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A., is Italy’s national public-service broadcaster, operating television, radio and digital services. It is controlled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and financed principally by the television licence fee, supplemented by advertising and other commercial income. Giampaolo Rossi is Chief Executive, and Antonio Marano exercises the functions of Chair pending confirmation of a permanent appointment.

Media assets

Television: Rai1, Rai2, Rai3, Rai4, Rai5, Rai Gulp, Rai Movie, Rai News24, Rai Premium, Rai Scuola, Rai Sport, Rai Storia and Rai Yoyo, alongside Rai 4K. International services include Rai Italia and Rai World Premium. Rai also provides regional and minority-language programming, including its German-, Ladin- and Slovenian-language services.

Radio: Rai Radio1, Radio2, Radio3, Isoradio, GR Parlamento, Radio1 Sport, Radio3 Classica, Radio Tutta Italiana, Radio Techetè, Radio Live Napoli, Radio Kids and No Name Radio, alongside regional and minority-language services including Radio Südtirol and Radio Trst A.

Digital: RaiPlay, RaiPlay Sound and RaiNews.it

Commercial activities: Rai Pubblicità for advertising, Rai Cinema for film production and distribution, Rai Com for commercial distribution and other services, and Rai Way for broadcasting transmission infrastructure

Ownership and governance

The Ministry of Economy and Finance holds 99.5583 per cent of Rai’s capital; the Italian authors’ and publishers’ society, SIAE, holds 0.4417 per cent.

Under Rai’s current articles of association, the Board has seven members serving three-year terms, renewable once: two elected by the Chamber of Deputies, two by the Senate, two designated by the Council of Ministers on the Economy Minister’s proposal, and one elected by employees. Their appointment is formalised through the shareholders’ meeting.

The Board already appoints both the Chair and Chief Executive, through different procedures. It selects the Chair from its members, but the appointment becomes effective only after approval by two-thirds of the members of Parliament’s broadcasting supervisory committee, commonly known as Vigilanza. The Board appoints the Chief Executive on the proposal of the shareholders’ meeting. The law does not automatically assign these offices to the two government-designated directors.

Giampaolo Rossi was appointed Chief Executive on 1 October 2024, succeeding Roberto Sergio, who had held the substantive post since 2023.

Simona Agnes was designated Chair on 1 October 2024, but parliamentary confirmation remained outstanding at this update. Rai’s published Board listing identifies Antonio Marano as exercising the Chair’s functions, as the oldest director under Article 22.3 of the articles of association.

The reform before Parliament

The reform seeks to address the requirements of the European Media Freedom Act. The regulation entered into force in May 2024; Article 5’s public-service media safeguards became applicable on 8 August 2025, concerning editorial and functional independence, senior appointments and dismissals, and adequate, sustainable and predictable funding.

The reform had not become law at the review date. The Senate’s legislative record recorded continued committee examination on 23 September 2026. The committee approved amendments that day, but that did not constitute final parliamentary approval.

The revised governance proposals would retain seven directors and the existing division between parliamentary, government and employee selection, extend Board terms to four years, and remove the shareholder’s role in proposing the Chief Executive, as the Board would make that selection itself.

For the Chair, parliamentary confirmation would require a two-thirds majority in the first two votes and an absolute majority from the third.

The funding proposals also changed during examination. An earlier provision allowing an exceptional annual fee reduction of up to 5 per cent was dropped. The subsequent approach would make a reduction conditional on corresponding alternative public funding. Supporters present this as protection for Rai’s resources; critics argue that dependence on compensating government decisions would leave political discretion over financing.

Source of funding and budget

Rai is financed principally through the television licence fee, with advertising and other commercial activities supplying the balance.

The ordinary household fee is EUR 90 in 2026, as it was in 2025. The reduction to EUR 70 applied only to 2024. Liability concerns possession of television-receiving equipment, subject to exemptions; collection generally takes place through residential electricity bills.

The 2024 figure includes EUR 413.5 million in exceptional state funding, recorded in the same category as licence-fee income, the amount excluding VAT of a EUR 430 million allocation. Removing that exceptional contribution leaves EUR 1,442.7 million in the category. Consequently, the reported totals conceal much of the effect of the temporary reduction in the household fee.

In 2025 the licence-fee category supplied approximately 66.4 per cent of consolidated revenue and other income.

Rai reported a consolidated net profit of EUR 9.3 million in 2025, compared with a rounded break-even result in 2024. The accounts distinguish this from the result attributable to Rai’s owners: after allocating EUR 29.5 million to non-controlling interests, the latter was a EUR 20.2 million loss.

The 2026 Budget Law reduced the licence-fee receipts allocated to Rai by EUR 10 million. This is an enacted financing measure, separate from the reform still before Parliament.

Editorial independence

Formal independence requirements exist. Article 2 of the 2023 to 2028 public-service contract requires Rai’s output to respect impartiality, independence, pluralism and the verification of sources. Article 5 of the EMFA adds directly applicable obligations concerning public-service media independence.

Regulatory oversight also exists. AGCOM supervises broadcasting obligations and publishes political-pluralism monitoring. The European Commission’s 2026 Rule of Law Report states that AGCOM exercises its functions independently. Appointment through political institutions does not, by itself, establish that the regulator lacks operational independence.

The concern is the effectiveness of those protections in practice. The Commission recognised further progress through work on the reform, while recording continuing concerns about Rai’s independent functioning and financial sustainability. It also reported the Media Pluralism Monitor’s continuing high-risk assessment of public-service media independence.

The Media Freedom Rapid Response consortium’s July 2026 mission report identified persistent political interference at Rai and weaknesses in its appointment and funding arrangements, and documented the prolonged paralysis of parliamentary supervision.

A further dispute arose in August 2026. Rai removed Sigfrido Ranucci from presenting the investigative programme Report. Opposition politicians and the programme’s journalists condemned the decision as an attack on editorial independence. Rai’s own announcement presented the appointment of Giulia Presutti and Daniele Piervincenzi as investment in investigative journalism and said Ranucci had been offered alternative roles.

AI and digital policy

Rai publishes an organisation-wide AI policy. Its Board approved the policy in February 2026, as recorded in its announcement of Board decisions.

The published Policy on the Adoption of Artificial Intelligence requires competent human oversight of outputs, checks on the correctness and completeness of input data and content, and clearly assigned responsibility. Material created with substantial AI assistance must be appropriately identified in accordance with applicable rules.

The policy also addresses copyright, personal data, discriminatory bias, security, environmental effects and staff training. It restricts use to approved or regulated tools and requires assessment and approval of new generative-AI initiatives. It envisages further operational guidance tailored to different uses, including journalism and creative production; it should not be described as imposing a blanket prohibition on AI-generated news.

Classification rationale

Rai remains classified Captured Public/State-Managed (CaPu).

It is state-controlled through ownership and appointment arrangements. The Economy Ministry holds virtually all its capital, and six of seven Board seats originate through parliamentary or government selection.

It is financed predominantly through a compulsory public contribution, supplemented by commercial income. Political decisions determine the fee and can alter the resources allocated to the broadcaster.

The classification rests on documented political influence despite formal safeguards. Rai has explicit independence obligations and external regulatory oversight, but current monitoring identifies persistent interference and weaknesses in governance and funding. State ownership and political appointment powers alone would not establish editorial capture.

September 2026