Thirty years ago, Rai Cinemafiction was created within Italy’s public broadcaster. Its life lasted only two years, but its impact was far greater than its short existence might suggest. The structure helped lay the foundations for the transformation of Italian television scripted programming, turning TV dramas into a central part of Rai’s strategy and contributing to the growth of an independent production sector that would become increasingly important in the following decades.
The project, bringing together drama and film under the same structure, was launched in 1996. The idea may seem obvious today, but at the time it represented a significant change. Rai Cinemafiction viewed original content not only as an editorial priority, but also as an industrial asset. A broadcaster could maintain a strong position in a rapidly changing media landscape only by producing or commissioning its own premium content and building a library that could generate value over time. The principle later summed up by the expression “Content is king” was already at the heart of the project.
This approach produced a series of long-running successes. Un medico in famiglia, adapted from the Spanish format Médico de familia; and Don Matteo, the detective series centered on a priest which became one of Rai’s most enduring franchises. Both series have attracted massive audiences over the course of more than 260 prime-time episodes each — and Don Matteo is still in production. The most significant international example was Inspector Montalbano, based on the novels by late novelist Andrea Camilleri. First broadcast in 1999, the 28-film series grew increasingly successful over the years, with reruns often drawing more than 10 million viewers. It also became one of Italy’s major television exports, reaching more than 65 countries, including the UK, the US, and Australia. It was one of the first examples to demonstrate that a strongly local story, language, and setting could become an international asset rather than a limitation.
By 1998, the experiment came to an end, but its legacy survived in the creation of Rai Fiction and Rai Cinema, which are still the two major pillars of Italy’s scripted and film production. That brief experiment created a model: a public broadcaster working systematically with independent producers allows the creation of original local stories and supports a sustainable industrial ecosystem.
Read more: Cinema & Video International Issue #209
