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.
Mention has also been made of Barack Obama’s cap on managers compensation in the USA of $500,000 USD. The word ‘immoral’ has been associated with the earnings of the following Italian television personalities.
So, what are the so-called Italian TV VIPs taking home?
Paolo Bonolis
Paolo Bonolis is an Italian quiz show host who recently admitted on a kids TV program to making around one million Euros a year. He has worked for both Mediaset, part of the Berlusconi empire, and Italian RAI state television.
Bonolis will also make a few pennies on the side in 2009 – he’s going to be presenting Italy’s annual San Remo music fesitval contest thingy. He is to be rewarded handsomely for this too. He also does Lavazza coffee ads too. Well, insuring a Ferrari in Italy is terribly expensive.
Bruno Vespa
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
The presenter of political chat show, Porta a Porta – Door to Door, does slightly better than Bonolis, taking home 1.87 million Euros a year home. And this gentleman has a journalist’s pension as well, just to round things off a little. Just in case the poor chap cannot make ends meet, one supposes.
Simona Ventura
Primarily the presenter of odd sort of football show Quelli che il Calcio, but with very little football actually shown, Simona Ventura’s 1.8 million Euro annual salary keeps her living standards good and high.
Fabio Fazio
One time comedian and now chat show presenter Fabio Fazio does very well indeed thank you very much on his annual pay of two million Euros. He can often be found on RAI 3, Italy’s commie TV channel. A case of all of us being equal, but some being more equal than others?
Veronica Maja and Caterina Balivo
I don’t know who they are, or what they do, but they get around 100,000 Euros a year for doing it. They are bound to be good lookers though. Still, one hundred thousand smakeroos is a lot less than two million.
Should you feel the urge to see what these top earners actually look like, then plug yourself in to Google.it‘s image search and google the names above. You will also find a little more on Italian TV icon Simona Ventura lurking elsewhere on this blog. Oh, go on, here’s the link: Simona Ventura: Italian TV Icon
Source: DNews
