21 MAY 1977, Page 10

Italy's answer to Annan

John Earle

Rome If you manage to 'hang out your hat on the ether,' you can then sell it again for a current market price of about 300 million lire (£200,000). This is not gibberish, but a serious statement by the owner of a Rome private television station nearly a year after the constitutional court ruled against the monopoly of RAI, the Italian BBC.

'Hanging out your hat' is slang Italian for squatting on an unoccupied waveband with a test card, perhaps accompanied by taped music. In these months of uncontrolled confusion, enthusiastic amateurs and quickwitted speculators have been trying to get on the air, while big-scale operators with ambitions for national commercial networks have been manoeuvring in the wings. Test cards come and test cards go, and some squatters are already reported to have sold out or been squeezed out, but in the Rome area alone there are at least fifty-seven television 'stations' which have staked their claims — not to mention the seventy-eight private radio stations which are now in operation.

The stampede started after the constitutional court found last July at the de facto monopoly enjoyed by RAI since the War and favoured by both main political parties, Christian Democrats and Communists — was at variance with Article 21 of the constitution„This states, 'All have the right to make known freely their own thought through words, writing or other means of diffusion.' The court stipulated, however, that transmissions could be on a local, but not a national scale. So now few areas are without local television. Viewers

in Rome can see transmissions from more than ten private stations, with the rest generally displaying test cards. It is no longer armchair viewing, but a case of continually jumping up to fiddle with controls, for no set contains enough channels to accommodate everything. Programmes may cover anything from serious po;itical debate to erotic gymnastics by unclothed girls, but for many of the more modest operations they consist of films, films, and still more films.

The names of the stations add to the attraction, even though their technical standards are often deplorable —names like Telejolly, Telefantasy, SPQR, Punto Zero and Video Sexy. Or, among the wireless stations: Radio Young, Radio Boh and Radio Explosion. The 'studios' may be anything from a hotel room to a shed in the back garden. Still, some of the more active newcomers are already providing direct competition to RAI by sending out cameras to sports events like football matches. The present confused situation reflects the indecisiveness of the Minister of Posts, Signor Vittorino Colombo, in the weak Andreotti minority government. A Bill is said to be in gestation which would regulate the chaos, but so far it has not been published. Airline pilots and airport authorities have complained about the danger from unregulated broadcasting by private radios and amateurs, and even the more serious TV stations themselves are the first to want some sort of regulation. This has recent;y been emphasised by Professor Guglielmo Arcieri, a psychiatrist, whose Telerome 56 is probably the most highbrow among the one hundred and twenty television and six hundred radio services which, he says, have banded together in a national association. Meanwhile the Minister of Tourism and Entertainment, Signor Dario Antonozzt, has — in response to lobbying by cinerna owners —persuaded the Cabinet to approve a Bill which would impose restrictions 00 the showing of films. It is arguable, though, whether box office sales are suffering more from the two hundred films said to be televised every day throughout the country, or from price rises in admission tickets and the tendency of city dwellers to go out less in the evening because of the deterioration inlaw and order. The Bill, yet to be debated by Parliament, would ban from private televlsion films which have been released in 'tab' less than four years earlier, as well as those having the equivalent of an 'X' rating and to which minors may not be admitted. No films could be shown on public holidays (including Sundays) or on the day immediately preceding. The same film could not be repeated on the same day — some of the poorer stations fill in time with repeat performances, like a cinema. Repeater equipment would not be allowed to relaY any films spoken in Italian from a foreign television station, unless the latter were situated in the European Community — 3 blow for Lugano and Capodistria, and Presumably Monte Carlo. If this Bill becomes law, it will make things difficult for the weaker stations' Their number is bound to thin out anyhow, especially when RAI implements plans establish a third channel. The expectation In the business is that a city like Rome ea" support up to eight or nine local progran/Ames. But, for some time to come, chaos all' confusion will continue to rule the wave5.