Gold TV and the shape of regional, national broadcasting in Italy
The offices of Gold TV are located at the entrance to Rome and occupy a contemporary structure in the Settecamini area. Gold TV is a modern media group with a variety of interests in TV broadcasting.
Starting from Gold TV in Lazio, it has created another company called La4 Italia, which has a concession to operate four channels on national LCN (local channel number): Gold TV is the first (channel 128), La4 Italia (channel 129), Italia + (channel 132) and, the most recent addition, Ok TV (channel 170).
While today Gold TV Italia is visible all over the country, ‘renting TV band’ from other local broadcasters, La4 Italia covers some 80% of the national territory, as well as Italia +, while for OK TV the network is under construction.
On the contrary the regional broadcasters affiliated as Gold TV (channel 17) , Lazio TV (channel 12) and Silver TV (channel 71) at this time are trudging from an economic point of view. As in some many other areas, the television industry is in the midst of a challenging period.
One of the most successful football-based programmes, featuring Pippo Franco and Luciano Moggi, is entitled Yesterday, Moggi and Tomorrow. The only real difficulty has concerned the expense of the soccer rights in the Football League. In addition, the match highlights are to be shown only after a certain period of time and only under certain conditions.
This year Gold TV wants to revive the transmission, because the programme is liked and new sponsors are interested. Also, there is the fact that the format of the programme is well-defined: it’s a talk show about football with competent people who know what they are talking about.
The big problem remains the rights and what the League allows some broadcasters to create and what is not possible for many others, including the regional ones.
Another problem is the accessibility within the stadiums: TV cameras are no longer allowed there (except a few authorised services) and this is very challenging to the local or regional broadcasters.
Gold TV has for years been creating the Studio-Stadio programme aired from the Olympic Stadium of Rome, but nowadays to include such type of show in a broadcast with national television personalities, it is much more difficult.
For example, the television crew of a regional network such as Gold TV going to Trigoria, where the Roma soccer team trains, must await their turn to ask questions, as the first questions are delivered by Sky, Mediaset and RAI.
This is curious since Italian local broadcasting is economically important; in total, Gold TV and Tele Monte Giove have more than 80 employees. About 20 people work for La4 on the Italian national network.
This has been an active reality on the market for 35 years, the only one which has a Lazio Rome office with four studios, three control rooms and a playout facility, and delivers 30 channels. There are also branch offices in Latina, Terracina, Formia, Frosinone and Cassino.
A regional and national broadcaster pays great attention to information and sports. With a focus in the area that allows you to inform in a direct way, being close to the people, even with strategic sets, near the stadiums.
Meanwhile, other broadcasters in Lazio are striving and closing, and the Italian TV system is no longer capable of protecting small regional broadcasters. In Italy, local TV stations today have over 10,000 employees, so many jobs there! And they could even create more jobs if only the government led by Letta dedicated itself to all these realities. This is the reason many foreign investors are not interested in Italy because, at present, its laws do not provide sufficient protection.