Tonight I’ll be at the Italian Cultural Institute talking about the European media with Andy Ward of Endemol and Angelo Maria Petroni of RAI.

Petroni is an interesting character. He’s a conservative sociology professor who was affiliated with Silvio Berlusconi. He was appointed to the board of Italy’s public service broadcaster, RAI, in 2003 by the finance ministry under Il Cavalieri‘s second premiership. He nearly got bumped off the board in 2006-7, when Romano Prodi was in power, but he survived.

One of Petroni’s notable proposals for RAI was to counter Italy’s massive licence fee evasion. Getting on for 30% of Italian homes don’t pay the licence fee (nearly 40% in the south). Petroni proposed adding the licence fee on to the electricity bill, with the assumption that with leccy came telly.

My puny knowledge of Italian public service broadcasting has been bolstered by Chris Hanretty‘s excellent blog.

And it’s on the calendar for the London Beppe Grillo group. Looking forward to it.