Sanremo Festival, towards the decisive meeting between RAI and the municipality

The time for the redde rationem between RAI and the Ligurian municipality on the Sanremo Festival is approaching. Talks and negotiations on the organisation of the song festival - with the parties having come within a whisker of breaking off last month (see Il Sole 24 Ore of 23 July) - are now in their final stages. According to the Sole 24 Ore there would now also be a definitive moment, with the last meeting scheduled for 2 September. A meeting, although there is a lack of confirmation on this point, could also take place today.

Certainly by now, time and space for negotiation have been reduced to a trickle and the sand in the hourglass is running out. After that, if there is no agreement, it would be decided at RAI that without further delay they will have to take the road of organising the Festival elsewhere. Naples and Turin would be the first choices. But Rome could also enter the game.

This is the end of the game that began after 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 Sanremo City Council in response to a ruling by the Liguria Regional Administrative Court at the end of 2024, confirmed by the Council of State at the end of May, which had imposed a public tender for the assignment of the Festival's trademarks, deeming the direct assignment to RAI for the 2024-2025 editions to be illegitimate. Just Entertainment, which won at the TAR last year, appealed against the announcement. The precautionary appeal was rejected by the Liguria Regional Administrative Court, which, however, moved the decision to the hearing on the merits, next 17 October.

If on the economic conditions the differences would seem to have been mostly settled, one issue on which the bank is likely to break is that of brand and format ownership.

If the Festival in Sanremo is part of the history of TV and RAI, there would be no shortage of pressure at RAI to abandon the Ligurian city. In the same way, as anticipated yesterday in the Sole 24 Ore, a missive was sent to Viale Mazzini by the record producers (Fimi and Pmi) in mid-July, firmly requesting that the contribution to expenses per artist be raised to 120 thousand euros (from the current 65 thousand euros): a request motivated by the increase in costs in recent years in the Ligurian town.