Rai accelerates on Fast channels: from business archive products into smart TVs
Handling the dossier is Rai Com, which is moving towards an agreement for a channel with the Lega Basket. For the Rai subsidiary, three years of growth
by Andrea Biondi
Rai has decided to bet on 'antenna-less' TV: the one that travels via the Internet, which lands on smart TVs, free for the user and supported by advertising. They are called 'Fast' channels and for Viale Mazzini they are no longer such a side experiment. Certainly, one does not imagine huge or explosive sources of revenue, especially in the first phase. But Rai Com, the commercial arm of the group, led by CEO Giuseppe Santo and chaired by Claudia Mazzola, has been working on it for some time. And in fact it has switched on Samsung Tv the first channel on the series 'Un medico in famiglia'. Now it is preparing new single-theme channels on entertainment, documentaries and, where rights allow, cinema. Before that there could be the start of a channel with the Basketball League: 'Within a few months it should start', says Santo.
The rationale is simple: exploit innovation, but also make use of memory. 'The Fast channels,' explains Santo, 'are a way for us to further exploit what is Rai's content. We have a very deep library of out-of-date content that, however, can be exploited in this segment'. The management costs of these types of channels are quite low. And they are 'easily manageable and also easily measurable,' emphasises Rai Com's CEO, 'because being on IP they are also easily measurable in terms of the yield they have. If the audience responds, the product remains; if it does not work, the programme schedule is changed.
The route does not, however, stop at the Fast. Rai Com seeks to preside over digital territories where Rai can find new demand without cannibalising traditional TV. 'On new technologies we are trying to stay ahead, in the sense of providing and testing so that the company can exploit new technologies,' says Santo. The list includes Youtube, where the Tg1 channel has started; TikTok, with the Sanremo operation; Amazon Prime Video, where Rai Com runs two channels with 10-12 thousand subscribers; and Disney+, with a RaiPlay branded area. "For the first time within a third platform there is a branded area dedicated to RaiPlay".
Rai Com works as a distributor of the library: it retains its share and passes on the rights portion to the parent company. Then it also returns dividends, as Rai is the sole shareholder. In 2025 revenues are 117.4 million, Mol 15.4 million, operating profit 12.6 million and profit for the year 12.1 million. In the three-year period 2023-2025 revenues at 363.7 million, EBITDA at 51.4 million, operating result at 43.5 million and profit at 40.5 million. For the last three years, the shares to the Rai group plus dividends reached 255.9 million (80.7 million for the financial year 2025). "We arrive with the best three-year results in Rai Com's history," says Santo, speaking of "a truly virtuous period".
Three levers. The first is new digital business. The second is the export of Italian content: dramas, documentaries, archive films, channels for Italians abroad. Rai Com organises Screenings every year, with over one hundred international buyers. The third lever is agreements with public administrations. 'We have just closed an important agreement, last month, with Sicily. The next two editions of New Year's Eve, on RAI, with the expectation of the arrival of the New Year, will be in Sicily. The first year has already been defined in Palermo'.
