Il industrial plan of epochal importance for Rai he wanders around the institutional buildings like a ghost. Yesterday evening the hearing of the managing director of Viale Mazzini was scheduled at the Parliamentary Supervisory Commission which was instead postponed due to other commitments of the parliamentarians. For this occasion (initially envisaged only for the topic of the presence of politicians on the news) the topic of the new business plan, approved by the Rai Board of Directors on 6 March, with 5 votes to in favor and two against (one by Rita Borioni of the PD and the other by Riccardo Laganà, elected by the Company's employees). Meanwhile, as foreseen in the Service Contract, approved last year, the industrial plan lies on the tables of the MISE for the "determinations of competence", i.e. assessing whether and how much it corresponds to the indications specifically detailed in the Contract itself.
The Industrial Plan, formally, is still "strictly confidential and cannot be disclosed" even if for some days it has been circulating quietly in the editorial offices of some newspapers and on the tables of many parliamentarians, obviously including those members of the Supervision who would have received it in daring form, according to when declared the deputy PD Michele Anzaldi who last week denounced having first received "cut and incomplete" documents and subsequently with "incredible censorship on the Information Plan". In fact, the Plan when it arrived in Parliament is public and also FIRST online owns a copy, including the five substantial attachments that compose it.
However, before going into its merits, a small step backwards is necessary: the new industrial plan that would go into effect for the three-year period 2019-21 is being discussed during the discussion of the new service contract between Rai and MISE, which entered into force last year, following the application of the provisions of the law reorganizing the governance of 2015 and then the renewal of the ten-year concession.
The Contract expressly provides (art.25) that Rai "is required to present to the Ministry... within six months of the date of publication of this Contract in the Official Gazette, an industrial plan which, based on the definition of license fee resources available on on a three-year basis, envisages - in line with the provisions of the Agreement - interventions aimed at achieving: i) efficiency and rationalization objectives relating to the industrial, financial and company productivity structures, also in order to recover resources to be allocated to project financing ... ii) the valorisation of decentralized production centres, and also for the needs of promoting local cultures the valorisation and strengthening of the decentralized production centers of Rome, Milan, Naples and Turin, taking into account their vocation, also for the needs of promoting local cultures; iii) the definition of a coherent organizational model which also provides for the establishment of a specific research office in charge of carrying out studies and surveys concerning the activity of the public service media; iv) the identification of a road map for the development of the projects envisaged by this Contract with evidence of the necessary interventions of overall economic compatibility".
Furthermore, the same contract expressly provides that separate plans must be presented as regards the organization of personnel, another plan to be presented to the Supervisory Authority (and not to the MISE) for the "... reorganization which may also include the redefinition of the number of newspapers news as well as the redesign and strengthening of the information offer on the web", a communication plan concerning the institutions, a plan for an English-language channel and, lastly, an editorial plan that "i) is consistent with the mission and public service obligations; ii) may provide for the remodulation of the number of non-generalist channels and the possible remodulation of commercial communication within the same channels, as well as the redefinition of the mission of the generalist channels; iii) develop an overall offer which, through the variety of genres and languages, makes it possible to respond to the needs of the public in its various articulations; iv) define a specific quota of resources for the development of original formats; the amount of this quota must be no less than 2 million euros in the first year of application of this Contract and progressively increasing in subsequent years”.
As can be clearly seen, these are onerous commitments both from an economic point of view and from an organizational point of view which require the Company to be able to count on relevant resources that it is not at all clear how and where they can come from. However, there are other no less important profiles, even if they are never made explicit. One is about sort of "cultural plan" as the councilor Laganà defined it and refers to the general context within which the evolution of the radio and television public service takes place, in Italy as in the rest of the world. Last but not least, there is the most slippery plane, on which the greatest risks are run: the political one. On the cultural project, we are in the presence of a social framework of vast and profound mutation of the demographic composition of users, of their habits of use and consumption of audiovisual products, which requires a planning effort of great importance such as, for example, that made by the Plan of the BBC (launched last year) where they tried to imagine what the future of the British public service broadcasting could be in the next ten years.
In Italy, at the moment, there doesn't seem to be anyone capable of promoting and supporting a reflection of this type. This brings us directly to the "political plan". The document we are talking about is the only child of a widowed mother: it was drafted in the DG Antonio Campo Dall'Orto era, i.e. the first half of last year. It is inherited by CEO Fabrizio Salini (July) who, according to the Contract, should have presented it to the MISE a few weeks after his inauguration. Too little, reasonably, and then a six-month extension is requested and obtained, and thus we arrive at the past few days. In the meantime, the BoD of Viale Mazzini takes office and begins to work and, in fact, to implement a "phantom" industrial plan which begins with controversial appointments to the networks and Tg.
Obviously, this arouses political discontent of various kinds and refers to the parallel tensions between the two government forces that have expressed the new governance Rai, Lega and M5S. As usual, the country is mirrored in Rai and vice versa and rumors of tensions between the President and the CEO have been chasing each other for some time, more less as happens between the two deputy premiers Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio. The stakes are high: we are on the eve of the European elections, on the outcome of which the fate of the government could depend. Control over Rai is not, as it has never been, an irrelevant factor in political competition (unfortunately) and the new Industrial Plan is entirely legible under this interpretation.
