Abstract
Prior to the mid-nineties, Italian television did not produce any soap operas. Daytime serials were imported mainly from the USA. Unexpectedly, the most commercial television genre was produced for the first time by the public service broadcaster: Un posto al sole was aired by RAI in 1996. The commercial competitor Mediaset immediately responded with Vivere in 1998 and CentoVetrine in 2001. Today, Un posto al sole is still on air, while both Mediaset’s soaps were cancelled. The paper will focus on the rise and fall of domestic long-running daytime serials, on the different choices taken by the two competitors and on the perspectives of the genre in Italian schedules.
Highlights
Unlike the majority of continental Europe, until the mid-Nineties, there was no local production of soap operas in Italian television
The most commercial television genre was produced for the first time by the public service broadcaster: Un posto al sole was aired by RAI in 1996
In 1990, RAI decided to enter the market of imported daytime serials through the acquisition of an American soap opera produced by CBS, The Bold and the Beautiful, which during the same year debuted on RAI’s second channel, Raidue, where it scored unexpectedly high ratings and where its huge success would continue for four years
Summary
Unlike the majority of continental Europe, until the mid-Nineties, there was no local production of soap operas in Italian television. This peculiar definition means that did RAI and Fininvest[2] have the same economic, political, and social relevance (both of them owned three channels, both had political protection, and both were financed through advertising, even if RAI was, and still is, financed through taxes), and that through the eighties and nineties they harshly fought each other as competitors focused on providing the same types of content and genres, instead of developing their uniqueness This attitude is clear in the development of domestically produced long-running daytime serials. The relevance of the genre for the commercial network is attested by the recent, unpredictable success of imported daytime serials, such as the Spanish serial, El Secreto de Puente Viejo (Canale 5, 2013-present) or the German serial, Sturm der Liebe (Canale 5-Retequattro 2006-present), as we will see
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