Rai Boards of Directors met yesterday in a stormy meeting: for the first time, the budget’s approval has not reached a unanimous consent: two out of the nine voting members gave a contrary opinion (Giancarlo Mazzucca of the Centre Right and Arturo Diaconal, Forza Italia) and one, Paolo Messa, Ap, abstained. A signal of the tension existing in Rai and that pushed General Manager Campo Dall’Orto, who attended the meeting but with no right to vote (pursuant to the so called Gasparri Law), to not present the production plan fearing it would have been rejected.

Another sensitive issue concerns the new appointments: the discussion to renew Rai Com BoD was postponed, whereas Luca Milano was elected with unanimous consent as new director of Rai Ragazzi. Also Alessandro Picardi and Luca Balestrieri were confirmed as Rai representatives within tivùsat.

Eventually, the thorny issue of wage ceiling: at the moment, the limit of 240 thousand euros has been confirmed, with a derogation allowed only for contracts with Rai artists (contracts with presenters such as Fazio, Giletti or Vespa are therefore excluded). The Ministry of Economy and Finance sent a letter to BoD members to invite Rai to examine the issue more in depth together with the Ministry of Economic Development.