Last night I did a panel debate with Angelo Pet­roni of Italy’s pub­lic broad­caster RAI, mod­er­ated by Endemol’s Andy Ward on the future of mass media in Europe. The set­ting was the gen­teel and fad­ing grandeur of a house in Bel­grave Square, which suited the theme perfectly.

So what did I learn about Italian telly?

1. The board of RAI is more like an exec­ut­ive — it meets weekly.
2. RAI has a 40+% audi­ence share with less rev­enue and half the employ­ees of the BBC.
3. Regional legis­latures are chal­len­ging the author­ity of a cent­ral pub­lic broadcaster.
4. For pub­lic ser­vice broad­cast­ing in Europe, the only growth oppor­tun­it­ies are pan-European, and to stand still is actu­ally to retreat.
5. There is not even the faintest pos­sib­il­ity of Europe’s pub­lic ser­vice broad­casters consolidating.
6. A free-market con­ser­vat­ive like Pet­roni appre­ci­ates the irony of being cast as a defender of state inter­ven­tion in entertainment.
7. It is a funny old world.