Rai: “No programmes have been cancelled on Rai Scuola; more content is now available on Rai Play”

“There are no plans to discontinue Rai Scuola’s programming. Its educational and informative role will be preserved and enhanced through changes to the way content is distributed and accessed, and a stronger presence on RaiPlay.” Rai has clarified this following the controversy raised by the opposition over reports that Rai’s educational programming on digital terrestrial channel 57 was to be scrapped.

The decision, the company states, forms part of the broader “project to revamp the specialist channels – long awaited and finally being implemented – which stems from the need to adapt the public service to the viewing habits of the younger generations”. According to Rai, “viewing figures confirm that the Rai Scuola linear channel attracts a very limited audience: an average share of 0.14 per cent in 2024, 0.13 per cent in 2025 and around 0.09–0.10 per cent in the first few months of 2026. These figures highlight the limitations of linear television as a means of reaching school-age audiences widely and systematically’. In short, Rai has decided to “take content aimed at pupils to where the pupils are”.

The new “Rai Play Scuola e Learning” project, unanimously approved by the entire Rai Board of Directors, moves beyond the linear model and develops an integrated digital platform that will bring together Rai Cultura productions, the Rai Teche archive and existing educational content, “in an on-demand ecosystem bridging the classroom and the home”. This transformation “follows a simple principle: educational content must be available when students need it, not just when it is broadcast. Digital technology allows content to be searched for, revisited and used both at school and at home, via connected televisions, computers, tablets and smartphones. The Qualitel survey, which gives Rai Scuola a satisfaction rating of 8.0, also confirms that this figure has risen to 8.1 on RaiPlay, making it Rai’s most highly rated digital platform.

Public service broadcasting, therefore, is not turning its back on schools: it is investing in a model that is more in line with the way in which today’s younger generations access knowledge. To think that, in order to reach digital natives, it is essential to keep them glued to a linear channel would be a bit like arguing that, to use a library, one must go back to consulting only paper catalogues’. In short, ‘Rai Scuola is not closing down: it is evolving. And, above all, it is going where the students are’.