23 February: Anna Oxa wins the Sanremo festival with Senza pietà. The show is conducted, for the first time, by Fabio Fazio, sided by the actress Letitia Casta and by the Nobel Prize for Medicine Renato Dulbecco; the presenter achieves a personal success, getting the presence of several international guest stars, even not related to the music, such as Michael Gorbachev and Neil Armstrong. The festival is the most watched program of the year, with 16,234,000 spectators.[1]
26 April: at 6 am, the all-news satellite channel Rai news 24 begins to broadcast.[2]
1 July: the thematic channels RAISat Cinema, Album (material from the RAI archive), Art, Show, Ragazzi (for children) and Gambero Rosso (cooking) make their debut (for a fee) on the satellite platform Tele+ Digitale[2].
7 October: the first episode of ’Francamente me ne infischio, with Adriano Celentano, is broadcast. Provocative as usual, the singer alternates musical numbers with a shocking video against the capital punishment, displaying an execution in Guatemala. The show gets 9,6 million viewers.[3]
Law 78, regulating Italian pay-tv, is promulgated; it imposes some antitrust rules to contrast Rupert Murdoch's plans for a monopoly in the sector.[2]
30 May: the local televisions network Italia 7 splits into two ones: 7 Gold and Europa 7, belonging to the Abruzzo businessman Francesco Di Stefano.
28 July: A decree of the Ministry of Communications establishes that the national frequencies of Rete 4 are transferred to Europa 7. The rule, which should reduce Mediaset's monopoly of private television, will never be applied, despite a long Di Stefano’s legal battle.[4]
Non lasciamoci più (Let’s never break-up again) – romantic comedy by Vittorio Sindoni, with Fabrizio Frizzi (in his only performance as an actor) and Debora Caprioglio; 2 seasons. A marriage lawyer, confirmed bachelor, avoids several useless divorces, till he's embedded by his helper, a charming female private eye.[7]
Finalmente soli (Alone, at least) – sit-com with Gerry Scotti and Maria Amelia Monti, spin-off of Io e la mamma; 5 seasons and 3 TV-movies. A dentist, who has lived with his mother up to forty, faces for the first time marriage and fatherhood.[9]
Chi ha incastrato Peter Pan? (Who framed Peter Pan?) – game show and variety with contenders from four to ten years old, hosted by Paolo Bonolis and Luca Laurenti; 6 seasons. (The 2005 edition, hosted by Gerry Scotti, has been called Who framed Uncle Gerry?) Italian version of the Spanish Esos locos bajitos[10].
Pinocchio ovvero lo spettacolo della Provvidenza (Pinocchio, or The Providence’s show) – parody of the Collodi’s novel, directed and interpreted by Carmelo Bene.[11]