The Italian government is considering selling off RAI. “In a country like Italy, where only a tiny percentage of the population derives its political news from printed media, a change in the ownership structure of a television empire such as RAI, which has 45% of the TV audience, would be an issue of intense political concern. But in this case, there is the additional fact that the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, owns RAI’s main rival, Mediaset, whose channels control 44% of the market.”