The new Law permitting Off Shore Italians holding passports to vote in Italian Elections, has prompted RAI to "upgrade" Italian Programming in Canada.

That appears to mean that the NEW Cable service will cost more, and not provide revenue for local  Italian Canadian programming.

All this has stirred up the Italian-Canadian community. The Italian language media are full of it. And there have been petitions, marches on Ottawa and hundreds of letters for and against sent to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission which is deliberating over this one right now...

[I have omitted the columnists schizoid assimilation rant. I will leave it to Canadian Italians in the Toronto area to deal with her]
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ITALY SPARKS A LOCAL WAR OF WORDS

The Toronto Star
Antonia Zerbisias
Columnist
Dec. 11, 2003.

... brings us to the squabble in the Italian-Canadian community over Telelatino (TLN), which has been supplying cable subscribers with Italian and Spanish-language viewing for more than 20 years, and RAI International, the network-for-export spin-off of Italy's public broadcaster....

Anyway, the squabble is all about how TLN, which has had a deal to carry some 40 hours a week of RAI programming since 1984 and with whom it won a licence in 2000 for a digital channel called RAI Canada, is now threatened by an application by RAI International to beam directly into Canadian homes.

According to the folks at TLN, which is owned by Corus Entertainment and which, in turn, is owned by western-based cable giant Shaw Communications, RAI is out to break all its agreements with TLN, depriving it of its programming — and from much of the revenue it generates, which funds Canadian Italian-language production.

Money is also an issue from the viewer's perspective.

That's because, if licensed, the RAI International channel, whose application is sponsored by Rogers Cable, would command a premium digital service rate and require a digital box.

TLN, on the other hand, is low down on the analogue dial and available to some 3.5 million homes at a fraction of the cost. Plus, it comes with homegrown programming aimed at Canadians of Italian origin.

Right now, only some 1.3 million Canadian homes — out of 7.3 million cable households — subscribe to digital services. Not exactly the triumphant 500-channel universe rollout that the cable industry had hoped for. So Rogers is hoping RAI will help move a bunch more boxes.

But why, for example, have BBC Canada and BBC Kids Canada been able to find berths on the digital dial without depriving viewers of other BBC programming lower down the dial? Why is RAI pulling the rug out from TLN and millions of Canadian viewers?

According to an RAI news release, the pitch is this: A new law back in the old country now gives all Italian citizens worldwide "the right to vote in Italy's general elections and referenda." And so, "in order for Italian citizens in Canada to be fully informed about the issues ... and to effectively exercise their right to vote, it is very important that they have access to the breadth of Italian programming broadcast on RAI International."

About 70,000 Italian passport holders here are eligible to vote....

All this has stirred up the Italian-Canadian community. The Italian language media are full of it. And there have been petitions, marches on Ottawa and hundreds of letters for and against sent to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission which is deliberating over this one right now...

Antonia Zerbisias appears every Thursday. azerbis@thestar.ca.

TheStar.com - Italy sparks a local war of words
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