Italo pubcaster RAI plans to pump a hefty $400 million into local TV skeins this year despite its shrinking ad revenues and less than hoped for license fee coin, which means less money for Hollywood fare.
RAI, which was Italy’s 2008 ratings winner with an overall 44% share against a 40% average rating at Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset, suffered an estimated e90 million ($67 million) in advertising losses last year due to the financial crisis, forcing the web to cut costs by at least $150 million in 2009, according to prexy Claudio Petruccioli.
But RAI will not cut investments in the homegrown skeins that are its regular ratings champs, according to the pubcaster’s production plan to be presented for final board approval on Wednesday.
That plan includes a lavish biopic of controversial Pope Pius XII, leader of the Catholic Church during World War II, and new installments of hit skeins including “Don Matteo,” about a crime-solving parish priest.
Yank fare is already scarce on RAI, which airs only “Desperate Housewives” and “NCIS” in primetime, compared with more Hollywood-heavy rival Mediaset, which runs “House,” “Gossip Girl,” “CSI,” Hallmark’s “Merlin” and “Walker Texas Ranger.”
In December the government raised RAI’s license fee, already the lowest in Europe, from $142 a year to just $144. RAI, which this month is expected to disclose 2008 results showing it is $45 million in the red, relies on the license fee for half its budget, while advertising accounts for 45% and rights sales for 5%.
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