Conference Program

In a fragmented and convergent media environment (Jenkins, 2006), public service television faces the challenge of hybridizing with digital media in order to compete within an increasingly complex and stratified commercial context. This environment is characterized by the processing of large amounts of data on users’ consumption habits, algorithmic processes that shape both production and distribution, and the organization of content through continuous flows and on-demand libraries (Barra, 2022). Furthermore, within the framework of a post-serial culture (Brancato, 2011; Amendola et al., 2019; Masullo, 2025), the circulation of clips, remixes (Lessig, 2009), and micro-narratives on social media redefines the formats of linear television while simultaneously capturing the attention of audiences—especially younger ones—who engage in new practices of sharing and reappropriation through short, modular, and recombinable languages.

Rai has sought to respond decisively to these new market challenges and to the evolving ways in which people learn, access information, and interact online by transforming itself into a digital media company. The RaiPlay platform, relaunched in 2019, stands at the forefront of this transformation. This paper therefore takes RaiPlay as a case study, interpreting its distribution strategies (Barra & Rossi, 2026), formats, and original content aimed at younger audiences as components of a system in transformation that proceeds through trial and error, updating the pluralistic and aggregative mission of public service broadcasting to contemporary needs (while inevitably confronting the limitations, setbacks, and socio-political constraints typical of the Italian media context).

Several original coming-of-age productions have positioned the platform as complementary to generalist television, while its role in selecting and enhancing linear content has made it a fundamental tool for event television (sports, music competitions, major public events, and civic commemorations), partially re-synchronizing audience consumption within the vast “sea” of digital plenitude (Bolter, 2020). Moreover, projects such as “Qui c’è RaiPlay”, developed in collaboration with the Policlinico Gemelli hospital, along with other partnerships with public institutions, demonstrate the platform’s potential for social penetration, offering a virtuous example for schools, universities, training institutions, and public administrations.

Television can therefore still potentially represent a crucial space for discussion and citizenship (Ortoleva, 2011), capable of promoting media literacy, critical and conscious entertainment, and the ability to navigate saturated communication environments, thereby contributing to the construction of a democratic horizon capable of resisting the polarization fostered by commercial media. Through a structural and content analysis of the platform, also drawing on interviews with industry professionals, this paper reinterprets RaiPlay’s practices and potential as a new frontier of public service broadcasting, capable of fostering inclusive participation and informed citizenship within a fragmented and complex media environment.