Good morning and welcome to a new appointment of ADN Talks. Today in the studios of the Palazzo dell'informazione in Piazza Mastaia in Rome. Welcome to the CEO of RAI, Giampaolo Rossi.
Thank you. Thank you for the invitation.
So, let's say one thing right away. We had actually scheduled this interview for a long time, but in these last few days the Ranucci case, La Vitola on Report, the affair of the attack, blew up. Do you regret coming and giving me this appointment?
Absolutely yes. [laughter] No, I'm joking, I was welcomed so well. Thanks again for the invitation.
Let's obviously go to this, which is a bit the story of these days. Last Friday, RAI's decision to precautionarily suspend the summer reruns of Report caused discussion. The host reacted, speaking of conjectures, pretext. How do you see it?
No, we made a decision in line with choices of editorial protection, of course. Let's not forget that Report is a RAI format, it's not anyone else's, it's always been RAI's. And clearly the company took charge in a very delicate phase in which we don't know the developments on one hand of a judicial investigation, on the other hand also of the ferocity of the media debate that is being fueled and that is also touching the format itself. RAI's commitment was to protect it. I specify that we did not cancel new episodes of Report, we canceled reruns that had already been rerun and that are also easily viewable on Replay. It is a form of caution adopted to protect the brand, which is fundamental for the company. Linked to this affair, yesterday the Minister of Made in Italy, Urso, wrote a letter to the presidents of the Chamber and Senate, but also to you, if I'm not mistaken, in which he asks to immediately restore the RAI oversight commission also in light of the risk of external influence, for example also for programs like these investigative ones on RAI. Yes, the letter from Minister Urso is a letter that has its total legitimacy because I recall that MIMIT is also the administration, the ministry that manages the service contract between RAI and the State, so it is, let's say, the guarantor of our compliance with the constraints imposed by the service contract. So it is a stimulus that the minister made, obviously also and especially not to RAI, but in particular to the political bodies so that the role of the oversight commission is restored.
The oversight commission, the stalemate after the resignations of the members is certainly a problem. The opposition threatens resignations indefinitely. All this is somewhat a problem in certain respects also regarding obviously the commission's duties that enter corporate life, the oversight regulations, also the drafting regarding the electoral issue and the elections are at the door.
Yes, it's clear that on our part the absence of the oversight commission is an issue not so much related to the functioning of the company, because the company obviously proceeds with the prerogatives of the board of directors and the top management who are 100% operational. There is obviously an issue of political role. The oversight commission also has, let's say, the task of monitoring the maintenance of pluralism and information. So it's clear that this element does not disturb the company's activity, but in some way creates a scenario that is not a calm one.
In Parliament, yet another attempt at, let's say, reform of RAI governance is being discussed. If they were to hear you as an expert, what advice would you give?
Well, let's say that the fundamental issue for us who operate in the media and television sector and as a public service is first of all the issue of resources, that is, the guarantee that is a topic addressed throughout Europe, not only in Italy, the guarantee that RAI, the public service, can have sufficient resources necessary to develop the prerogatives of the service contract and its commitment to be an active subject in a market that is today very disintermediated by the entry of global players, the new platforms, and therefore it is an extremely aggressive market. RAI is not simply a company. RAI is an industrial hub that supports entire supply chains of the Italian audiovisual industry, and therefore protecting RAI means protecting a very important Italian industrial system.
Well, we obviously did some research with our entertainment editorial staff. [clears throat] So, RAI returned to profit after 8 years with a consolidated net result of over 9 million euros. It is the best result in the last 8 years, if I'm not mistaken, since 2017. But not only that, it is one of the four best in the last 18 years. You stabilized 127 precarious workers, yet the narrative only talks about Telemeloni.
Well, it depends more on you journalists and how you tell the story, not so much on RAI. So, we have made an enormous effort in these years to reorganize this company to try to project it towards the great challenge, that is, its transformation into a digital media company. We did this through a rationalization operation, obviously also of costs, and therefore a revision of the economic and financial balances of the company. We did it above all with an industrial plan, a real estate plan that we launched and that not Giampaolo Rossi but third-party observers have defined as probably the most ambitious industrial and real estate plan in RAI's history. All this is bringing good results, in the sense that the active balance sheet with which we closed the year is a very important signal. I would add among the elements also the fact of the contractual renewal for 9,500 RAI employees done a year ago and the fact that with this result, for the first time RAI can give a 100% performance bonus to the company's employees, which is a recognition to those who created this value. The employees recognize it.
Let's go to one of the important things, perhaps one of the founding pillars of the company, that is, Sanremo. The last edition went particularly well, but clearly I want to know if you are satisfied and above all if it can be done even better.
You can always do better, especially at Sanremo. So, let's say we inherited a situation that wasn't very simple with Amadeus's departure. Carlo Conti, whom we chose 2 years ago to carry out this, let's say, Sanremo biennium, did an incredible job. Carlo is a great professional, perhaps one of the best professionals in Italian television, and he achieved results that are not only this year's results, but the absolute audience record of last year, which was still the biggest result, which further projected Sanremo to be perhaps the biggest television entertainment event internationally, certainly one of the biggest in the world and perhaps the biggest in Europe. Then there was a page we decided to build in the last edition, which was the handover, a generational handover on the Ariston stage between Carlo Conti and Stefano De Martino, who is one of the youngest artistic directors in Sanremo's history, and we obviously expect from Stefano, who is a great resource for RAI and its future, an extraordinary Sanremo also for next year.
Well, speaking of Viale Mazzini, after decades everyone talked about it and there was the problem, right, of asbestos, everyone knew it, yet it remained there. [clears throat][cough] Only you took the responsibility to start an expensive, long, demanding renovation. Who made you do it? We often ask ourselves, because then the narrative is never so laudatory.
What made us do it was the fact that we had to set up and implement this real estate plan, which is a priority in building RAI's future. It is a real estate plan that involves investments of half a billion euros and that we see with a time horizon up to 2032.
The sale of 13 properties, right? A package, a sales package, but in reality it's only part of the real estate plan.
In reality, the center of the real estate plan is the renovation, the modernization of all assets. RAI has about 750,000 square meters of properties throughout the national territory with an average age of 40 years. Many of these are no longer productive assets. The work we are doing is to modernize all of this. Mazzini is a case because, precisely, we knew for 25 years that it had to be renovated and therefore evacuated. We did it, but for example, the construction of the new production center in Milan, we laid the first stone, it will be one of the most important production hubs at a European level and will be one of the keystones of the company's technological future. In the coming months, we will inaugurate two new television studios in Saxa Rubra of almost 2,000 square meters that will be of very high technology. It had been since the 1990s that RAI had not built new television studios from scratch. In short, we are transforming the company.
What will you do in these television studios?
Many of the prime time shows will be moved to Saxa. Yes,
Well, we are now at the deadline for expressions of interest for the properties. Have you recorded interesting requests?
Yes, there is obviously an issue of confidentiality that we cannot communicate, but yes, there has been a great response.
What about the dialogue with the MIC for the future of the famous Palazzo La Bia and Teatro delle Vittorie?
It is open and we are, let's say, building with them the conditions to understand the real interest of the MIC in the purchase of two properties that are nonetheless two very important properties.
Well, we mentioned it before, in these years there has been a digital revolution that has also brought important results, for example, on RaiPlay, right? I don't want to be wrong, but based on unique accesses, it seems that RaiPlay, 83% of those who are digitalized in Italy at least once a month land on RaiPlay, and there are also interesting results in the under 35 age group when in reality it was said that young people don't watch television. Now De Martino arrives. What is happening?
