Towards a new model for Italian TV fiction: Sky Italia originals and the struggle for difference

The chapter focuses on original content production, distribution and promotion on pay TV in Italy and especially Sky Italia’s key role in it since 2008. Italian fiction, traditionally produced for the local internal market by the public-service broadcaster, Rai, or by the main commercial group, Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset, has long failed to earn worldwide acclaim. Romanzo criminale, Gomorra and other Sky Italia shows, however, are designed for global distribution and conceived as internationally co-produced, or rather co-financed, products. This overview of the pay-TV production model for scripted content addresses various aspects: the production context and culture, adopting a media production studies approach to analyse both the broadcaster’s and the production companies’ perspective; promotion, communication and scheduling; the consumption practices and textual changes marked by both continuity and discontinuity in narration and representation. The ultimate aim is to show whether (and if so, how) an Italian premium TV series model has emerged – as a distinct alternative to those traditionally developed by free-to-air broadcasters – and to explain why these series, with their local appeal and international style, are so successful in global markets.