As Seen on TV: Programming Cinema and Entertainment in Italy in the Long 1980s.

Abstract

Between 1974 and 1976 the Italian Constitutional Court allowed the development of private television channels in Italy. The progressive emergence of the financial holding company Fininvest’s television channels and the ensuing stiff competition with the state broadcaster RAI from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, a period I define as “the long 1980s,” was a decisive moment not only for the television market, but also for Italy’s cultural and economic history. The ruling by Italy’s highest court opened up new and unprecedented opportunities for private enterprises, and within a few years profoundly affected Italians’ relationship to the television medium, film viewership, and cultural consumption. The domain of the competition for film programming became an important element in the battle for the acquisition of audiences between RAI and Fininvest’s channels. In my dissertation, I focus on the interdependent relationships between cinema and television in Italy during the long 1980s, from the emergence of private local networks and their transformation to national networks, and the ensuing vertiginous rise in film programming, to the introduction of pay-per-view. At the center of my work is a particular practice of programming, which amounted to what I refer to as habit-forming flow, since programmers successfully juxtaposed films and other programs, together with announcements, trailers, and commercials in order to inform the viewing and material consumption habits of the audience. I contend it is the programming as a whole, and not just individual programs, that had a crucial role in shaping these habits and creating new narrative structures. In particular, during the long 1980s, the implementation of the television habit-forming flow informed, and, at the same time was influenced by, a period of profound political, social, and economic transformations. More individualist lifestyles were emerging throughout Italy also thanks to an innovative television programming and its objective to spread more personalized forms of viewing and material consumption. The substantial rise in television film programming through the advent of private television, along with the creation of a habit-forming flow, brought about significant cultural changes in the long 1980s that inspired new consumption practices and narrative formats in Italy.