To give an overview, the public service company RAI is considered the most important source of local news for the inhabitants of 14 regions out of 20, mainly thanks to the regional newscasts coordinated by the news organisation TgR. According to Agcom’s elaboration on Auditel data, the average share of TgR’s evening programme – on air from 19:30 to 20:00 on RAI3 – was 12.5 per cent in September 2019. In the other six regions, the most important sources of local news are the media companies Monrif, Gruppo editorial (Gedi), and Caltagirone, Tosinvest, who are also relevant at the national level.
Looking at specific regions, and considering the nationwide news outlets established in the different regions including digital news, Lombardia and Lazio stand out for the number of news media companies. If we focus instead on local news outlets, Sicily is the region where the largest quota of news media outlets is available, followed by Puglia and Lombardia.
In general, we can find local radio stations and online news outlets in every region, yet the same cannot be said for local newspapers. Furthermore, journalists working for local news outlets are more likely to be threatened, as their weaker economic conditions exacerbate their vulnerability (see Indicator F11 – Protection of journalists against (online) harassment). Likewise, small local companies already hard hit by the 2010 crisis are more fragile when facing threats, and often unable to bear the costs of proceedings resulting from legal actions (Agcom, 2017).
Regarding print media, looking at the data provided by Accertamenti Diffusione Stampa – the company certifying and releasing the data concerning circulation and distribution of dailies and magazines in Italy – the availability of the most important national newspapers is different in each region. If we can count more than 50 national or multi-regional newspapers spread in Lazio and Lombardia, in Molise, only 19 newspapers are circulated, and in none of the southern regions can we find more than 24 newspapers. Several of them have been closed or acquired by other publishers, effectively reducing the number of local news media outlets available in some regions, so that in Valle d’Aosta and Calabria, no local newspaper is available.[i]
When it comes to radio and television, according to article 15.3 of the Contratto di Servizio [Service Contract] 2018–2022between the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and RAI (2018), the public service company is required to cover at least 95 per cent of the Italian population. According to RAI Way – the company that owns the RAI radio and television broadcasting network and is in charge of managing these broadcasting systems – 99 per cent of the Italian population is covered by the RAI digital terrestrial television signal. Furthermore, according to article 19.4 of the same contract, RAI should also guarantee free access to all the programmes in simulcast by satellite network. Thanks to Tivù, a consortium between RAI and private broadcasters, the areas not covered by digital terrestrial television signal are covered by the satellite network signal. The private broadcast Tivù guarantees adequate coverage by satellite as well.
The other network providers, EiTowers (linked to Mediaset) and Persidera (hosting Discovery and Gedi television channels), are not obliged to provide data on population coverage, but on their websites, every citizen can find information about the coverage of the area in which they live.
The main Italian broadcasters have developed multiplatform delivery systems, making their programmes also available on the web, through specific apps, for instance RAIPlay (the renewed app from the public service media company RAI). However, according to Internet audience measurement systems, these apps and web portals are not widely used for news consumption.
According to Agcom, there were 17.38 million broadband and ultra-broadband fixed lines in Italy in September 2019. 37.5 per cent of these lines were faster than or equal to 30 Mbps. Moreover, there were 54.6 million SIM cards, generating 3,023 petabytes of mobile data traffic at the same date. As reported by Audiweb, the Joint Industry Committee detecting and distributing Internet audience data in Italy, in November 2019, the total Italian monthly digital audience connected by personal computer, smartphone, or tablet was 41.6 million people. They spent an average of 118 hours and 20 minutes online per month. The total Italian daily digital audience was 34 million people. On an average day, 30.3 million Italians have used their smartphone to connect for over four hours per person.
Search engines, video platforms, and social networks reach 96.5 per cent of monthly users (40.1 million), while general interest portals are used by 37 million users (89.1% of monthly users). Current events and global news websites reach 36.1 million users (86.8% of monthly users), more than e-commerce websites (35.2 million, 84.7% of monthly users), instant messaging (35.1 million), and e-mail (33.9 million).
[i] According to several scholars, in particular economists, local newspapers are very important for the public opinion in the election periods (Drago et al., 2014), because they can prevent the polarisation of the voting behavior (Darr et al., 2018). According to some political scientists, declining local political news coverage is reducing citizen engagement (Hayes & Lawless, 2018).
