Anyone who turns on the television in Italy encounters a media landscape that has been shaped for decades by two names: RAI and Mediaset. One is the venerable public broadcaster, the other the private empire that Silvio Berlusconi built from nothing in the late 1970s. Together, they still reach around three-quarters of all Italian viewers. A handful of challengers exist alongside them, including a growing number of streaming services, but the duopoly continues to define television in Italy to this day.
RAI: The Mother of Television in Italy
Radiotelevisione Italiana, known as RAI, was founded in 1954 and has served as Italy's public broadcasting institution ever since. Funded through license fees and advertising, it operates under state authority and has therefore always existed at the intersection of public service and political influence.
The three main channels RAI 1, RAI 2, and RAI 3 define its identity. RAI 1 is the flagship, commanding the highest ratings and serving as the home of the major evening shows, the Sanremo broadcast, and the most important news programs. RAI 2 has traditionally focused on entertainment, imported series, and sports. RAI 3 has the sharpest journalistic profile and is generally considered center-left in its orientation. Additional specialty channels include RAI News 24 for around-the-clock news, RAI Storia for historical content, RAI Scuola for educational programming, and RAI Gulp as well as RAI Yoyo for children.
Mediaset and Berlusconi: The Cavaliere's Empire
The story of Mediaset is the story of Silvio Berlusconi, and with it the story of modern television in Italy. In 1978, the Milanese property developer founded the channel Telemilano, which quickly expanded into a national network . During the 1980s, this grew into the three major private broadcasters Canale 5, Italia 1, and Rete 4. In 1996, they were consolidated under the Mediaset umbrella, a subsidiary of Berlusconi's holding company Fininvest.
Canale 5 is the counterpart to RAI 1: broad in appeal, glamorous, built around big shows and telenovelas. Italia 1 targets a younger audience with series, comedy, and reality television. Rete 4 leans more conservative and focuses on political talk shows.
Berlusconi's dual role as media entrepreneur and politician made Mediaset something more than just a TV group from the very beginning. When he swept the 1994 elections with his party Forza Italia seemingly out of nowhere, he had already spent years building an advertising and image machine without equal. During the nine years he governed Italy, he controlled not only his own channels but also wielded considerable influence over the public broadcaster RAI. Critical journalists disappeared from the airwaves, and programs that fell out of favor were canceled. Italians coined a word for this phenomenon: telecrazia.
In 2021, Mediaset was renamed MFE, Media for Europe, a holding company incorporated in Amsterdam. In Italy, the group continues to operate under the Mediaset name. In 2025, MFE acquired Germany's ProSiebenSat.1, bringing a certain circle to a close: Berlusconi and his German counterpart Leo Kirch had already been loosely connected back in the 1990s.
The Third Pole: La7 and Sky Italia
For a long time, RAI and Mediaset faced barely any meaningful competition. That has changed somewhat in recent years. La7, originally a Telecom Italia channel, has established itself as an editorially independent voice and is now regarded as one of the most important channels for political talk shows and in-depth reporting. In terms of market share, La7 operates in a different league from the two giants, but it is taken seriously for its content.
Sky Italia is the country's leading pay-TV provider. The channel holds the rights to Formula 1, MotoGP, and a large portion of Serie A matches. For those in Italy who want to follow soccer or motorsport in full, Sky is essentially indispensable. Sky TG 24 is also an important news channel that competes directly with RAI News 24.
The Smaller Channels
Alongside the major groups, a number of niche channels have established themselves over the years. TV8 and NOVE are free-to-air channels offering entertainment and sports. Real Time, Giallo, DMAX, and Focus each serve their own niches, from lifestyle and crime documentaries to science programming. Iris shows classic films, while La 5 targets a female audience. Overall, the digital terrestrial television standard DVB-T2 makes several dozen channels available free of charge.
Streaming Is Changing Television in Italy
As across Europe, viewing habits in Italy have shifted significantly. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV+ are firmly established. RAI and Mediaset have built their own streaming platforms with RaiPlay and Mediaset Infinity, both available free of charge and offering a large portion of their linear programming on demand. DAZN rounds out the picture for sports, particularly soccer.
For younger Italians, linear television is no longer the first choice by a long shot, but among older generations the classic evening in front of RAI 1 or Canale 5 has proven surprisingly resilient. Television in Italy may have aged, but the duopoly is far from finished.
