Sanremo Festival, the RAI Board gives the go-ahead to the agreement with the municipality: convention until 2028
During the board meeting also the analysis of the summer ratings
The formal imprimatur has also arrived from the RAI Board of Directors. Not that there were any great doubts, but the passage could have been thorny and instead, as communicated by RAI itself, the TV board gave its green light to the agreement signed with the Sanremo municipality for the organisation of the Festival.
Technically, as stated in the note issued by Rai's press office, "the Board of Directors has approved the text of the Convention with the Municipality of Sanremo for the production and broadcasting of the 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions of the Sanremo Festival, with the option of extension for a further two years". In this framework "a permanent observatory between RAI and the Municipality of Sanremo will also be activated, which will carry out monitoring activities for an efficient implementation of the Convention".
The ball is now in the Municipality of Sanremo's court to give the last scrutiny in the City Council, in order to reach The End of an affair that began with the call for bids for the organisation of the Festival - starting in 2026 and for a three-year period with the possibility of extending it for a further two years - put together by the Municipality of Sanremo in response to a ruling by the Liguria Regional Administrative Tribunal at the end of 2024, confirmed by the Council of State at the end of May, which had imposed a public tender for the awarding of the trademarks connected to the Festival, judging illegitimate the direct assignment to RAI for the 2024-2025 editions.
Just Entertainment, which won at the TAR last year, appealed against the announcement. The precautionary appeal was rejected by the Regional Administrative Court of Liguria, which, however, moved the decision to the hearing on the merits, next 17 October. In the meantime, however, an agreement has been reached that, as far as the economic part is concerned, envisages payment by RAI of 6.5 million per year, with an additional 1% of advertising revenue. What risked blowing up the table, at one point, was the negotiation over the ownership of the format. Rai was intransigent on this point. And in the end it won out with the municipality, which will only keep the ownership of the 'Festival della canzone italiana' brand for itself.
The Sanremo Festival is not the only topic discussed during the board meeting. The cfo Marco Brancadoro will leave the company on 30 September next and 'the Board,' reads the company's note, 'has appointed Massimo Cappelli as Manager in charge of drawing up the company's accounting documents with effect from 1 October 2025'.
