The arrival of a new channel in Spain is always good news, but if it is a channel that is accompanied by football games… even better! That is precisely what we have been celebrating for a few minutes, because the expansion plans of a European chain have been announced and Spain has been chosen as one of the two countries where it will premiere.
We are talking about Rai Italia, the Italian network that has just announced its plans to reach Spain and the United Kingdom. The news could not be received with more interest and enthusiasm, since the Italian channel has very interesting programming. As we indicated, apart from programs, news and other content, it also broadcasts football matches every week.
A broad expansion process
Rai Italia is growing and reaching more places in the world is imminent. The signing of a distribution contract with the World Stream company will also make it easier for its channel and content to also be seen in many other countries. In this way, Italian news will be represented in the most international way possible in places such as France, Portugal, Greece or Belgium, among others.
Until now, Rai Italia’s international presence is already high, since the channel is available, according to official figures, in 40 million homes. The interesting thing is that, in practice, Rai Italia offers a type of support and content in line with what La 1 and RTVE Play propose. The similarities are so notable that Rai even has its own online platform known as Rai Play.
Football and many other contents
Right now, the matches of the Italian Serie A, the country’s main football competition, can be seen in Spain thanks to the Champions League channel. This service offers Movistar’s usual coverage of the best football and gives the ability to watch all the matches. However, accessing Italian football matches requires paying for this channel whose monthly cost is 21 euros. With the arrival of the Rai Italia channel, it is likely that we will have the opportunity to watch all the matches broadcast on it for free.
This means that we would have access to four weekly matches, which is not bad at all considering that there are eight teams and that it is very likely that they can cover the teams that interest us the most. However, it would remain up in the air to see how Rai Italia’s debut takes place in our country and whether football will be maintained or whether it will continue to be exclusive Movistar content. For now, taking into account that the expansion and arrival of the channel in Spain has just been announced, it may still be too early to know.
What we can tell you is that Rai Italia’s programming is loaded with interesting content with authentic Italian flavor, such as the cooking space E’ semper Mezzogiorno, the Paparazzi program, the news covered by La vita in diretta or contests like Reazione to catena. In the event that we also have access to Rai Play at the time the channel lands in our country, it will mean having a service that, as we said, is very similar to RTVE Play. This means that, in addition to current content, it will be possible to watch movies and series from all time.
For example, taking a look at Rai Play’s extensive catalog we have seen that they have a multitude of films by two of the Italians who were most successful in Spanish cinemas many decades ago: the unforgettable Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. Of course, the platform also has current movies and other programs, but this example serves to give you an idea of its variety. Now we just have to wait for the arrival of the channel, which we understand will occur in 2024.
