Before politics, there was television. Silvio Berlusconi, who died of leukemia on Monday at the age of 86, made history on the Italian small screen. The man who created Telemilano in 1974, a channel broadcasting only in Lombardy, launched Canale 5 in 1980, the first private television channel on a national scale. He then bought Italia 1 from the Rusconi group and Rete 4 from the Mondadori group, in 1982 and 1984 respectively.
The magnate had a very patriarchal sense of entertainment, not reluctant to show naked women on the air. The program schedule was built “on the same model as that of the English tabloids, bringing daily life to the small screens”, underlined to AFP Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffè, professor at the Bocconi University in Milan. Where his admirers saw levity, his critics criticized artificiality.
“Berlusconi’s TV was luxurious, breathtaking, with pretty dresses and wigs, it made Italians dream. It was super well paid and more, ”said Amanda Lear, at the end of May 20 minutes. The French artist met him in the early 1980s. “He had seen me on a program on Télé Monte Carlo in which I was doing interviews in French, English and Italian. He said to me: “Come to Milan, I need someone like you”, she remembered. She thus presented Premiatissima in 1982 and 1983 on Canale 5, the first stage of her career as a host in Italy.
“Afterwards, he freaked out”
“At the time, he was a good chain manager and did not play politics. After he freaked out, ”added Amanda Lear to 20 minutesreferring to the sex scandals and trials that have tarnished the image of Silvio Berlusconi.
The media man tried to develop his television empire beyond the transalpine borders, with more or less success. If Telecinco, launched in 1989 in Spain, still exists today, La Cinq was only part of the French audiovisual landscape from 1986 to 1992.
“His big flaw is that he never understood either digital or pay TV like Sky and Netflix”, missing a crucial revolution, notes Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffè.