RAI, Italian Public Service Media to Become Accessible Online and Under CC

An interesting article on an Italian IT news site, Zeus, reveals that the national broadcaster, RAI, has proposed to make available all programs produced using public funds online for download under a Creative Commons license. The proposal forms part of the new public service contract stipulating the organization’s obligations in exchange for receipt of the television license, currently set at 104 euros per year. This will require RAI also to acquire the rights necessary to allow transmission via internet, and rights restrictions will also mean that the programming is available only to users accessing their web-site from inside the country. In this respect, RAI are following the lead provided by the BBC, demonstrating the latter’s ability also to serve as an important example to other broadcasters. The public service contract will have to be reviewed and approved by a committee composed of members of the Italian Senate and parliament before being officialized.

Meanwhile the BBC completed the pilot period with its creative archive and now awaits charter approval before making materials available.  In October the German broadcaster ZDF announced its intention to emulate the creative archive (in German), and are hoping that it will lead to the wide circulation of their materials on video platforms and eventually win them new users, particularly amongst the young people most attracted to these sites.