For a long time I thought we were lucky enough to have the new fangled, all singing and dancing, much vaunted digital television. No silly little set top box for us, or so I thought.
There is a minor storm in a small teacup over the salaries paid to some of Italy’s public television personalities in these belt tightening times. ‘Public television’ in Italy refers to the partially state funded RAI channels, which receive income from an annual licence fee and lots and lots of commercial breaks.
Whilst chatting with one of my students, I discovered that he’d done his degree thesis on the subject of Italian television. I had to know more about this aspect of Italy I love to hate.