Overview of the events of 1980 in Italian television
This is a list of Italian television related events from 1980.
Events
RAI
- 9 February: in the final evening of the Sanremo Festival (won by Toto Cotugno) the host Roberto Benigni, on air, good-naturedly mocks Pope John Paul II, calling him “Woytilaccio” (Big bad Woytila). Benigni speaks ironically about Catholic sex morality and asks his partner Olimpia Carrisi to make love on the stage. The performance of the actor is considered controversial and causes a parliamentary question.[1]
- 12 June. Sergio Zavoli replaces of Paolo Grassi as RAI president, while Willy de Luca becomes general director. In September, the directors of all three channel and of the news headlines are also replaced. After the freedom of the “era Grassi”, the government parties regain the control of the estate, despite the undeniable professionality of the new president.[2]
- 18 June. The match Italy-Czechoslovakia for UEFA Euro 1980 gets 24, 700 million viewers. It is the second largest audience of the year, after the final evening of Fantastico (25, 600 million).[3]
- 2 August. Bologna massacre, with 85 dead; RAI covers the event with extraordinary editions of the news. The nation views the shocking images shot by its Bonosia seat. Followed by the airing of the funeral of the victims, where the state authorities are harshly criticized.[4]
- September. Musica insieme is the last RAI show aired in black and white.
- October. RAI 1 and RAI 2 extend the hours of broadcasting. The traditional pause of the afternoon is abolished; in the weekends, the beginning of the programs is set at 10 AM.[2]
- 23 November. Irpinia earthquake. For a week, the RAI programs are almost exclusively dedicated to the huge tragedy, with special editions of the news, touching reportages and appeals to the solidarity. On 26 November, the president Sandro Pertini, speaking from the places of the disaster, denounces the delays and the inefficiencies of the help efforts.[5]
Private channels
Notwithstanding a series of legal battles brought by RAI to maintain the private channels in the local scope, with sentences of the tribunals often contradictory, the year sees the birth of the two first Italian national networks: the Angelo Rizzoli's Prima Rete Indipendente and the Silvio Berlusconi's Canale 5. At the end of the year, there are 370 channels affiliated to a network, against 266 independent ones.[2]
- March. Birth of Nuova Emittenza Televisiva (NET), network of 18 televisions, managed by the FGCI and directed by Walter Veltroni.[6]
- 30 September. In spite of a warning of the Ministry of Communications, Silvio Berlusconi's Tele Milano 58 begins to broadcast in the whole Northern Italy with the mark Canale 5; almost immediately, the network extends to Center and South, with the mark Canale 10, and the 1 November covers the whole Italian territory.[2]
- November. The newborn Canale 5 gets straightaway a sensational goal, buying for $900,000 the TV rights for the Mundialito (a tournament among the World Champions football team, played in Uruguay). After long negotiations, RAI and Canale 5 get an agreement: Canale 5 can use the RAI satellite, while in exchange the State television can broadcast the matches of the Italian team. The Mundialito is the first great public success of Canale 5, with 8 million viewers.[7]
- 13 December. Birth of Angelo Rizzoli's network Prima Rete Indipendente, active in the Northern Italy and in Rome. The news program, Contatto, is trusted to Maurizio Costanzo (as Rizzoli, affiliated to the P2 lodge).[8]