After the first meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni last week, the CEO Carlo Fuortes continues to carry out his project in Rai, despite the rumors and reconstructions that would like it to be in contrast with Palazzo Chigi or in any case close to the exit from Avenue Mazzini. It seems obvious that the change of government will bring new balances to public television, but at the moment there are no shocks on the horizon. Even possible changes to the newspapers and possible changes in the top team are not on the agenda. The board of directors is meeting again today, but there will be no talk of appointments: in addition to the approval of the separate accounting for the 2021 financial year, there are also updates on the Rai Way affair, on the industrial plan and on the service contract. Sources from Viale Mazzini let it be known that the meeting with Meloni was “informal, cordial and interlocutory”, to underline that there was no tension.
The premier would be willing to rebalance the structure of public television, after the choice of the rest of the centre-right, contested by her party, to leave Giampaolo Rossi out of the board of directors. This is the name that is given for the succession of Fuortes or for a role as general manager, an alternative that should however have the approval of the CEO. To ensure that Rossi can enter the field before 2024, when the current board of directors expires, and then remain at the top until the end of the legislature, a change in the legislation on the ceiling of the two terms would be needed, which is not easy to implement. So here are already the names of other possible successors such as Marcello Ciannamea and Roberto Sergio. The fact is that Fuortes certainly does not intend to step aside and, even if the hypotheses of possible positions at the helm of prestigious theaters are rampant, he continues in his action with the horizon of the three-year mandate. This is demonstrated by his presence today at the press conference for the presentation of Fiorello’s new morning show, on which a lot is also aimed at boosting the ratings of Rai2. Good news for the company comes from the results of Marco Bellocchio’s Interno Notte and the World Cup which is going swimmingly, despite the absence of Italy. Overall ratings at the end of October were already better than those of last year, in which there were Europeans and the Olympics, and, with the World Cup, they will also be at the end of 2022, thus confirming Rai’s leadership. Fuortes also has another arrow in his bow, that of corporate accounts, because the balance sheet at the end of the year is expected to be balanced.
On the horizon is the appointment to Tg2, after the passage of Gennaro Sangiuliano to the Ministry of Culture and the interim to Carlo Pielici. It will be decided by the end of January. The name in pole position for the succession is that of the deputy director of Tg1, Nicola Rao. If the waltz of appointments were to be broader, the seat of Tg1 could come back into play, even if at the moment Monica Maggioni appears to be firmly at the helm. In the short term, perhaps already this week, the political framework will also be completed with the formation of the Supervisory Commission: the presidency should go to Italia Viva, with Maria Elena Boschi, provided that in the end the Movimento 5 Stelle does not win (the names of Stefano Patuanelli and Riccardo Ricciardi).