Antonio Campo Dall’Orto, the director general of Rai, has said the Italian state broadcaster is not interested in entering the pay-television sector.
Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica had reported that Dall’Orto was seeking approval from the country’s government to introduce a subscription-based online service in Italy.
“We have no intention of getting into the pay-television market,” Dall’Orto said, according to the Il Sore 24 Ore newspaper. “Buying football rights is not our job. Instead, we want an incisive multi-platform strategy.”
He added that providing value for the licence fee means the broadcaster should “make use of our content”.
He said: “I don’t believe that a public-service broadcaster can go off and buy the rights to US products – it’s outside our remit. It’s quite another thing to drive value from the resources we have.”