Abstract

The text deals with the following problems: Is the radio and television service a public service? The raison d'être of the 'public' radio and television service; the radio and television 'system' taken seriously; the public radio and television service between special restrictions and overtures to the market; the indifference of the European legislator; the justifications for the survival of a public radio and television service in a subjective sense; change of course: toward the end of the (subjectively) public service?; the mirage of the RAI S.p.A. privatisation; public service put out to contract to private parties: drastic remedies for drastic ills.