ITsART, Italiana, Nexo+, Audiovisiva... culture on TV in a market full of competitors

“The ratings have once again rewarded the choice to unite history, beauty and Italy. The success of Leonardo is another indication for Rai to invest more and more in culture, cinema, audiovisual.” Culture Minister Dario Franceschini’s tweet, written to comment on the audience success of the drama on Leonardo da Vinci, would therefore bode well for the country’s cultural future.

While we wait to see what facts will follow the minister’s statements, let’s see which are the main players (without considering Rai and RaiPaly) vying to contend for the TV culture market

Let’s start with ITsART. The idea behind the new platform has already been discussed in the past: the main concerns relate to the possible competitive relationship in cultural production with RAI, the need to focus on production rather than distribution, and the use of a sales model not by subscription, but on individual purchases.

In light of the minister’s latest tweet, further considerations therefore become appropriate.

In early March, a meeting of the RAI Supervisory Commission was held in order to clarify the reasons for RAI’s non-participation in the ITsART project. The Ministry of Culture, heard in the Supervisory Commission, had pointed out that it had sought an agreement with RAI, but had been unable to find it due to the paid nature of the proposed content. In this sense, Ad Fabrizio Salini had expressed himself: "Rai’s mission is not to produce content to resell it on-demand. And so we have not adhered to it. Our mission is to bring culture to as wide an audience as possible in a free way. We are currently in talks with Cassa Depositi e Prestiti to make cultural content owned by RAI available for a fee." Some RAI board members, such as Riccardo Laganà, had complained about the lack of sharing the project with the board, except when things were already done. It would seem, therefore, that it was RAI itself that did not want to participate in the ITsART project under these conditions, while making itself available to offer some paid content to ITsART.

Bringing some clarity at least on what the payment dynamics of ITsART will be, the statements on “Quotidinao.net” by Giorgio Tacchia, CEO of Chili (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti’s partner for ITsART). Talking about how the services will be paid for, Tacchia specifies content will be payable “one at a time,” with no option to subscribe. Tacchia adds that content that is not first viewings will be usable for free, with advertisements. The Chili CEO had also stated that the platform would be ready to go by February. Claim, however, belied by the facts, since as of today the platform would appear not to be ready. In fact, at the moment the only screen on the ITsART site has been inviting projects to be emailed for months, without specifying what type, themes, duration, whether only for distribution or also for production.

ITsART’s site at the moment.

Meanwhile, another on-demand platform on culture linked to a ministry, the foreign ministry, has also been announced. It is called Italiana and it offers free content on music, literature, poetry, cinema, theater, visual arts, web art, as well as architecture, design, history, archaeology, and food and wine, all about the bel paese. At this point, one wonders whether before launching these projects, the heads of the ministries had a minimum of dialogue with each other about them, so as not to create similar products. It is also unclear what the relationship between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture will be in the management of Italiana: is it possible that the Ministry of Culture will have no say in the dissemination of Italian culture abroad, and, on the contrary, launch a project with seemingly similar aims such as ITsART? Indeed, recall that according to Minister Franceschini, one of ITsART’s main roles will be to promote Italian culture abroad.

As if ITsART and Italiana were not enough, here are manifested other entities that would seem to offer entirely similar services: Audiovisiva and Nexo+. Audiovisiva is an independent platform that offers documentaries on-demand, with an offer of over 300 products, many of which were no longer available, with documentaries on the world of art, architecture and design, photography and cinema. Audiovisual positions itself as a platform with an international profile, as a member of Eurovod, a European network of independent video-on-demand platforms. Content is divided between free or paid, with the option of renting it for a week or purchasing it.

Instead in the wake of Nexo Digital instead, a company specializing in the production and distribution of art-related audiovisual products, Nexo+ was born, a platform dedicated to culture, with more than 1,500 hours of content that can be enjoyed through a subscription. The platform offers products focused on museums, exhibitions, artists, art films and personalities, as well as music, rock, pop and classical, opera, ballet, major live events, not forgetting art documentaries.

This scenario of fragmented digital offerings on on-demand culture suggests two thoughts. The first is that more competitors should raise the level of supply. This would translate into a benefit for the viewer, who would be faced with more and more quality products to choose from. The second thought, however, goes in the opposite direction. Netflix and Sky, in the past years, have made a very strong contribution to curbing the problem of online piracy, much more than many (by us perhaps few) laws have. The idea of paying a small annual subscription and having large catalogs of quality and remarkable definition available has probably prompted many users to subscribe to these services and stop illegally downloading movies and videos online. The emergence in recent times of on-demand movie platforms, such as Prime, Disney+, and AppleTv+, would instead force the viewer to have multiple subscriptions. As multiple parties have noted, unfortunately for many users this increased expense has been interpreted as a good reason to return to illegal movie downloading.

In the face of these considerations, the presence of multiple platforms, focused on culture, could represent a dissipation of user energy and attention. It will then have to be seen whether these all-divided platforms will be able to consolidate an already niche audience (unfortunately) and remain competitive: if internationalon-demand giants such as Netflix and Prime, decide to focus more on culture, how would these new platforms compete? Further questions arise. If, as Minister Franceschini stated in his tweet, RAI will continue to invest more and more in culture (as it should), what relationship will RaiPlay, Italiana and ITsART have? In a state-run scenario, will RAI lose its privileged role in the production and distribution of cultural content or will it be strengthened? In a corporate scenario where the idea of closing or amalgamating channels is periodically considered, it is difficult to be optimistic, not least by virtue of the fact that not even a few months ago the possible closure of RAI Storia was feared.

So here we are, waiting for more precise information, returning to the same question that has been echoing for months: wouldn’t it have been better to implement and invest more in RaiPlay, rather than creating two new platforms ?

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.