When in March the board of directors of Rai and at the end of May the shareholders’ meeting approved the 2023 accounts of the media company of the State in the press releases only two data were provided: the balanced budget and the primacy of the public TV networks in prime time audience. Both are true data, but incomplete. The break-even was only achieved in the consolidated financial statements thanks to the good dividends, but the 2023 financial statements of Rai spa closed in the red for almost 40 million euros which is like saying that everything is fine in Rai except for TV and radio, which they would be the core business. The 2023 ratings achieved the top of the rankings in prime time, but lost it to Mediaset throughout the day. So 2023 was a bad year, much worse than the previous one which also didn’t shine.
Despite the electricity bills, the fee is once again evaded
According to the documentation attached to the financial statements which bears the signature of the CEO, Roberto Sergio, the operating loss, which worsens the already negative result of 2022 by 9.5 million euros, also derives from a drop in rental income which came from private electricity bills. A hole of 38.7 million euros compared to the previous year «due to the lower collections resulting from the extensions of payment terms granted to the flooded municipalities, the delays in billing times attributable to some electricity supply companies and a significant increase in arrears (estimated in the order of 1.5%) caused by the difficulties of families considering the complexity of the socio-economic context”. Now part of this sum is missing due to deferrals granted in the payment of taxes and duties, and will probably only have a cash delay. But it is the first time that Rai has reported that so many Italians have not been able to pay their electricity bill and therefore also the license fee that state TV collects.
Rental income below due amount of 2.6 billion euros in 17 years
Sergio claims that the company has been struggling with a significant problem in terms of revenue for over fifteen years, linked precisely to collections from license fees: «The separate annual accounts», he writes, «aimed at determining the cost of providing the public service activities that must be covered by license fee resources, highlight a lack of public financing for the period 2005-2022 for an amount equal to 2.66 billion euros”. Despite such difficult financial conditions and with concerns expressed for the future, in 2023 Rai managed to further increase a staff that was already swollen. The staff grew by a further 165 units, reaching 11,146 employees for Rai spa alone and 12,605 for the entire group.
The troubles of TV offset by the profits of Rai Way’s antennas
What makes the consolidated balance sheet break even are above all Rai Way’s dividends, received only in part by the state TV which has just over 65% of the shares (the rest after the listing is in the hands of international savers and investors). Rai.com, which takes care of the group’s web activities, is also doing well, but there are also quite a few problems from some controlled companies. Like San Marino TV of which few details are provided, but the shareholding was fully written down in the balance sheet “in relation to the economic and financial crisis situation in which the company finds itself and awaiting extraordinary interventions to rebalance the management”.
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