Rai Premium

About channel Rai Premium

Rai Premium is a free Italian thematic television channel published by Rai and managed by the Rai Gold structure.

The channel was launched on 31 July 2003 under the name of RaiSat Premium, on the occasion of the reorganization of the RaiSat channel bouquet for the birth of Sky Italia, from the apparent merger of RaiSat Album and RaiSat Fiction. The new channel was visible only for a fee via satellite on Sky at channel 122 and later also via cable with the IPTV TV bouquets of Fastweb, Alice Home TV and Infostrada TV.

On 31 July 2009 the contract between RaiSat and Sky Italia ended and the network left the Sky bouquet, giving way to the female channel Lady Channel; consequently from that same date, RaiSat Premium becomes a free channel, and is visible on digital terrestrial in the areas covered by RAI Mux A. It is also available via satellite with the Tivùsat bouquet, and streaming on RaiPlay.

On 18 May 2010, the channel changed its logo and name to Rai Premium. On 26 November, the channel merged into the new Rai Gold management, which also deals with Rai Movie. On 19 December 2011, the channel renewed its graphic layout, a change already anticipated by some promos broadcast on all Rai channels.

In July 2015 it underwent a further restyling, adopting a new claim: Emotions you want to relive (the previous one was "The channel for true affictionati"). This is due to the partial change in programming of Rai Premium, i.e. the addition of reruns of Rai programs aired during the week (as Rai Extra did in 2010, before the latter channel became Rai 5) or past broadcasts (like The best years) in addition to the Rai Fiction fictions already on the schedule. The restyling also includes a new graphic look for the opening and closing bumpers of the commercials, following in the footsteps of the new bumpers for Rai 2, Rai Movie and Rai Storia.

From 26 May 2016, the channel began broadcasting in high definition on the Tivùsat satellite platform.

From 19 September, it will also be broadcast in high definition on digital terrestrial TV on Mux 5. With the change of broadcasting that took place in the same period, the channel began broadcasting historic dramas and TV series in 4:3 image format in 16 :9 pillarbox, together with Rai Movie and the other digital terrestrial Rai channels which launched HD broadcasts on Tivùsat during the year.

On 10 April 2017, Rai Premium renews its logo, graphics and colors, going from dark green to cerulean blue.

On October 20, 2021, the standard definition version on digital terrestrial switches to MPEG-4 encoding, remaining visible only on HD devices. Furthermore, due to the reorganization of the multiplexes, the HD version remains available only on Tivùsat.

On December 14, 2021, following the reorganization of frequencies, the SD version was eliminated from Tivùsat.

On 15 April 2019, Rai released an official press release announcing a merger project between the channel and Rai Movie in order to create a new broadcaster with female programming, Rai 6, as part of a reorganization of the company's television offer[6]. The announcement sparked quite a few controversies, which led to the creation of a petition on the Change.org platform which has collected more than 150,000 signatures. However, the project was not followed up and the creation of the new channel was suspended pending a clearer editorial programme.

Initially, the channel broadcast some Rai television programs from the past. Among the special events, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of Italian television broadcasting, the broadcaster proposed a retrospective of monographs each dedicated to each television season from 1953 to 2004. The channel, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Italia in 2011, instead proposed a cycle of replies on fiction dedicated to this event. Being the channel mainly dedicated to fiction, Rai Premium follows the various editions of the Roma Fiction Fest, and also broadcasts the backstages of Rai fiction in production.

Currently Rai Premium is mainly a catch-up TV, as it broadcasts various television productions made by Rai Fiction, together with the revival of some of the TV programs from the recent schedules of the main Rai networks. Since 1 April 2012, Rai Premium has also been broadcasting short news bulletins produced by the editorial staff of Rai News.

Among the few first-run productions of its schedule, in 2006 it broadcast the Spanish TV series Mujeres, while in 2012 it broadcast part of the TV miniseries Zodiaco - The Lost Book. In the summer of 2015, the miniseries Isola Margherita was broadcast, shot in 1993 but remained unpublished for 22 years. The channel also produces some in-depth programs dedicated to the world of TV series and entertainment, such as Fictionmania, Fiction Magazine and Uniche; the main presenters of Rai Premium include Arianna Ciampoli, Francesca Fialdini, Tiberio Timperi, Marco Liorni, Monica Leofreddi, Maurizio Costanzo, Max Tortora, Ettore Bassi, Perla Pendenza and Roberta Capua.