The soul of television

Italian television has just turned 70 and, all things considered, it seems to be doing quite well. Stainless over time, it has accompanied the growth and development of a country, earning a place of honor among the institutions that have contributed to the transformation of our society, from the post-war destruction to the global showcase of Made in Italy, passing through the economic boom of a somewhat anomalous and bizarre country, cloaked in art and beauty like few others in the world and, at the same time, weighed down by the inefficiency of a political-bureaucratic machine that inhibits its potential. But television, if you think about it, hasn't changed much in its soul; has followed technological evolution, has changed in shape and size, in image and sound quality, has dramatically expanded the offer of entertainment and programs and has learned to follow us everywhere through the latest generation devices , but its essence has remained the same; We spectators ask almost the same things of her and we remain somehow faithful to her because we know she is incapable of betrayal. The Sanremo festival is certainly the most striking and successful example of this and, more than any other television mechanism, embodies and perpetuates the verb of state television, that generalist television of ancient memory which the loyal and increasingly transversal public watches with peaceful sympathy. . They are endless tea evenings, a real marathon that tests even the most passionate, but from year to year, in clear contrast with the mechanisms of synthetic and hyper-compressed communication of the globalized world, the audience is growing and the oracle of television success consecrates the event on the altar of success.

In this latest edition signed by Amadeus/Fiorello the audiences were record-breaking; from the initial 10.5 million on the first evening with a 65% share up to more than 15 million on the final evening with 74% % share; a real revolution if you think of a format that is perpetuated practically unchanged over time. In a society that likes to showcase itself more than ever before and in a world in which individuals think they exist only for the sake of a personal media performance via social media, the Sanremo festival, created to promote the western Ligurian Riviera through a singing event forgotten by tourism after the war, it confirms itself with flying colors as a showcase of excellence that photographs and broadcasts into the ether an Italy always poised between innovation and tradition, hypertechnology and sentiment, Artificial Intelligence and bel canto that comes from the heart. Apparently nothing has really changed in 70 years except the fact that in reality, without obvious underlining, the roles now appear reversed; no longer television as a showcase for the relaunch of Sanremo, but Sanremo with its magical and nostalgic bandwagon as a showcase for the relaunch of state television which, outside of festivals, must be admitted to be rather sterile like all the areas in which politics, heavily ignorant on the subject, he enters and claims to command.


Michelangelo Dotta
NP March 2024