Rai News 24 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel operated by a state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's all-news television channel, and is known for its 24-hour rolling news service and its live coverage of breaking news.
History
It was launched on 26 April 1999, at 6am. Until 19 May 2000, the channel broadcast live on weekdays only and re-aired previous recordings during the weekend. On 4 January 2017, the channel launched its own HD feed. Since 25 March 2022, during the Russo-Ukrainian war crisis, the channel started broadcasting the news in the Ukrainian language.
In the beginning, Rai News 24 was directed by .
The channel experimented with solutions that were then unusual in Italy, integrating television, the internet and digital technologies; the choice of multi-screen graphics, designed by Giuseppe Rogolino, was significant, as was the widespread use of connections in video conference with correspondents and experts. In particular, to reduce the number of bits necessary for coding of the signal, the screen was divided into various windows: the window occupied by the television signal occupied just under half the number of total pixels, as the other parts of the screen contained informative texts regarding the exact time, major news headlines, stock exchange and currency indices, the weather forecast, the addresses of the in-depth Internet sites for the various news and the logo of the news or column on air at that moment.
In the graphics, three text fields and two videos appeared simultaneously, so as to make the news come up even without listening to the audio, with an architecture based on HTML.
Until 19 May 2000, the channel broadcast live from Monday to Friday, offering only re-runs on weekends. From 20 May 2000 onwards, live broadcasts were also extended to the weekends.
At the end of 2005, Rai News 24 scored various exclusives on the war in Iraq, informing of the use of weapons such as white phosphorus or napalm (through an investigation by Sigfrido RanucciTra le inchieste più significative trasmesse ricordiamo Iraq, la strage nascosta e Uranio Impoverito, guerra e bugie, documented on the historical website of historical website of RaiNews 24 ) by the US military, and the combat behaviour of some Italian soldiers in Nassiriya. These and other journalistic results have been obtained despite the considerable scarcity of economic and technological resources compared to the other major Rai newspapers (the first budget was only 42 billion lire, of which 10 was only for editorial expenses). The issue recurred several times in the following years.
On 10 November 2006, Rai News 24 opened its own official channel on YouTube, with videos taken from the news and programmes aired; the channel was deleted in 2014 due to the end of the collaboration between Rai and YouTubeRai.it
On 25 November 2006, under the authority of the channel's new director, Corradino Mineo, the channel introduced a new logo that omitted the Rai wordmark, used a new font, new initials and a new full-screen graphic design, designed by Giuseppe Rogolino; the branding graphics subsequently undergo a modification by the graphic designer Marco di Cesare.Accreditato sulla sigla del notiziario Double conduction was also introduced for some editions of the news. In collaboration with Rai 3, there was also the development of a newscast in Arabic for Rai Med. In the same period, the channel also began to broadcast through digital terrestrial television.
Developments and contrasts with Rai Between 2010 and 2012, thanks also to the transition to digital terrestrial, Rai News 24 recorded a development in terms of ratings, but some contrasts arose between the editorial staff and the publisher Rai for various reasons.
On 3 May 2010, Rai announced that the simulcast of the channel on Rai 3 would now end at 7 am, to make room for Buongiorno Italia, a new programme by TGR; the decision was met with much dismay among staff.
On 18 May 2010, to commemorate the occasion of the transition to digital terrestrial television in Lombardy and eastern Piedmont, Rai launched a new corporate identity and its new television offerings. Consequently, Rai News 24 simply became Rai News, adopting a new graphic, in which the editorial staff reported technical problems, readability and functionality, in particular during the broadcast of the latest news.
On the same day, the suite of channels expanded, with the launch of Rai Sport 2. On the same day, the range of channels was expanded with the launch of Rai Sport 2. This involved Rai Way moving the channel from mux B to mux A (from mux 3 to mux 1 in fully digital areas). Due to a change in the technical parameters related to tuning, the Rai Sport 2 signal was activated on the satellite frequency previously in use by Rai News; therefore, the channel was unavailable until re-tuning was done.The problem should not have occurred with the decoders supplied by Sky, where the reception parameters are automatically updated by the decoder; however, the updating of the Rai News parameters by Sky Italia occurs with a delay, even though the new frequency has already been active for days. Spectators from various parts of Italy complained of reception problems on both platforms and interruptions of live TV coverage.
Following this, journalists interrupted the programming of Rai News and convened ameeting of the editorial committee in the studio, which was broadcast live on the channel (under the control of Vittorio Di Trapani). The assembly is attended by the secretary of the Associazione Stampa Romana, Paolo Butturini, who announced his intention to denounce Rai for the interruption of public service and talked openly about the channel's deliberate obscurity.
Rai responded with a statement, in which they categorically denied having obscured the channel and claimed to have notified the editorial staff of the imminent technical intervention. In another statement, Rai reiterated the strategic role of Rai News, assuring that it has duly alerted viewers to the need for retuning digital equipment (Rai Way communication of May 17, 2010). Rai stated, among other things, that the displacement of multiplexes guaranteed Rai News greater national coverage and the possibility of broadcasting regional programs (a procedure that is technically impossible on a multiplex with an isofrequency transmission such as Rai Mux B). In September, there was a proposal to shift the night edition of TGR from Rai 3 to Rai News; both the editorial staff of TGR and Rai News did not approve this choice, and the plan was eventually scrapped.
On 29 August 2011, Rai News 24 shifted into a new interim studio due to ongoing renovations of the previous one. In the new studio, diode lighting capable of reducing fuel consumption and thermal dispersion, and new remote-controlled cameras, were tested.
SInce October 2011, the channel, by corporate choice, hosted selected daily columns of the TGR, namely Piazza Affari and Italia Sera; however, TGR and Rai News did not approve of these variations being scheduled, resulting in the former being closed in December of that year, and the latter shifting to Rai 3.
In the same month, the director Corradino Mineo explained in an editorial and in some interviews with other newspapers the difficulties of Rai News' operational efficiency, due to the scracity of technical resources and staff, a circumstance he believed was linked to Rai's lack of interest in the network.Articolo21.info The director complains, in particular, of the lack of recording operators in the studio, with the consequent obligation to adopt fixed cameras (and therefore a low quality of the television image), the poverty of graphics, (due to the absence of a newsroom specifically in charge of its management), the shortage of staff and multiple other problems.
On 15 December 2011, the Rai News programme renewed its sonic branding and branding graphics, transitioning to the 16:9 format, becoming the first Rai news programme to broadcast with this aspect ratio. Rai also announced a new version of the historic studio of the channel for early 2012, however, the project would only materialise in early 2013.
Since March 2012, following the example of competing news channel TGcom24, Rai News began to make flash news broadcasts on other Rai digital channels as "information snippets", which among other things, helped with promoting the network. In addition, due to Rai's cost-cutting policy, the channel's budget was reduced by 300,000 euros, which dropped it to just over five million euros.
In the same year, Rai proposed a merger between Rai News and Televideo, entrusting the task to deputy general director Antonio Marano, however, the idea was not approved by both companies.
The Maggioni management and the birth of the Rainews.it portal
On 8 January 2013, Corradino Mineo left the management of the channel, due to him being a candidate for leader in the Senate of the Republic in the Sicilian lists of the Democratic Party. Two days after the Board of Directors of Rai, the former presenter and head of the TG1 specials Monica Maggioni was appointed to the management.
On 24 February 2013, at 7am, the channel reverted to its previous name of Rai News 24, while setting up a new studio.L'impegno Rai per le elezioni - Ufficio Stampa Rai
On 14 June 2013, the Board of Directors of RaiIn Italian, it is referred to as "Il Consiglio di Amministrazione della Rai" which translates to English as "the Board of Directors of Rai ratified the merger of the editorial staff of Rai News 24 with that of , prodrome to the birth of the unified newspaper Rai News and the portal of the same name, which becomes a reality on 1 December, to which Rai entrusts the task of acting as the main reference of Rai information on the network, joining the sites of Rai News 24 and Televideo in a single portal.
Maggioni also modified the editorial line of the channel, focusing mainly on current events and live events. The schedule also changes, also launching new program: Di Mattina, conducted initially by Silvana Pepe, then by Roberto Vicaretti and Emanuela Bonchino; With the time running, conducted by Alessandro Baracchini and Paolo Cappelli; All in an hour, conducted by Silvana Pepe from 20:00 to 21:00. In addition, the economic resources and the technical and human resources available are considerably increased.
On the ratings front, in 2013 Rai News 24 showed a slight increase in average listening compared to the previous year, while the 2014 index revealed a drop of 11% compared to the previous year and the previous year. Nevertheless, Rai News 24 however its primacy among the news channels in Italy. Some newspapers and political exponents judged such results poor compared to investments, while the Rainews.it portal obtained the 300º place among the most visited sites by Italian users.Milena Gabanelli, La Rai che verrà , Corriere della Sera, 23 lug 2014.
Petrecca's Management On 24 May 2024, Rai News 24 relaunched its YouTube channel with videos not from the news and programs broadcast on TV.
Directors of Rai News 24 Roberto Morrione (from 1999 to 2006) Corradino Mineo (from 2006 to 2013) Monica Maggioni (from 2013 to 2016) Antonio di Bella (2016–2020) Andrea Vianello (2020–2021) Paolo Petrecca (since 2021)
Programmes and presenters Local times are CET. Night editions (00:00-06:00): Piero Marrazzo, Josephine Alessio, Emanuela Gialli, Valentina Dello Russo, Gabriele Martelloni, Dario Marchetti, Maria Buono, Renata Petillo, Pierfrancesco Pensosi, Giorgio Santelli, Antonella Alba, Federico Zatti, Eugenio Francesconi Morning editions (06:00-12:00): Paolo Cappelli, Francesco Musi, Laura Squillaci, Micol Pieretti, Chiara Burtulo, Cristina Raschio, Elena Scotoni, Maria Grazia Abbate, Roberto Rizzo, Valeria Ferrante, Alessandro Marchetti