OC T O B E R 2 0 1 1 (Continued from Page 6) Re, Italian TV Pioneer, Dies At one point, in 1984, Giuliano Re controlled Italy’s fourth largest TV network, EuroTV. But his biggest accomplishment was in the late ’70s when he introduced Italy to both TV syndication and TV barter. Giuliano Re died on July 27 at the age of 85 at his home in Rapallo, in the Liguria Region. Re’s career in advertising included running the Sales department of Corriere della Sera, Italy’s largest daily, and Il Sole 24 Ore, now Europe’s largest financial daily. He entered the television business in 1979, bartering and syndicating programs acquired mostly from the U.S. At that time the television ad revenues for the Italian private sector were the equivalent of U.S.$40 million. By 1984, when he created Euro TV by merging two ad reps, the figure reached $600 million. This was despite the fact that television in Italy did not yet have a regulatory framework and the laws applied were those pertaining to the criminal and civil codes. VideoAge featured a profile of Re in its October 1984 Issue. After departing the media sector in 1999, Re left Milan and retired to Liguria. He’s survived by his only child, Patrizia. CBC Gets DTV Switch Delay Last August 31, Canadian TV stations switched to digital transmission. The next day, September 1, about eight percent of the population, which doesn’t subscribe to cable, telco or satellite services, either bought an analog-todigital converter or saw a mostly blank screen when they turned on their TVs. The digital transition affected 30 major TV markets in Canada, including cities with populations of over 300,000 residents. CBC, the country’s public broadcaster, has earmarked C$60 million for 27 digital transmitters —14 English and 13 French — but it has yet to solve some transmission and retransmission problems. So, the CRTC, Canada’s telecommunications authority, has granted the CBC an extra year to complete its digital transition, allowing the broadcaster to keep its analog signal running in 22 markets until 2012. Naturally, the DTV switchover has not been easy for the commercial sector either, with millions invested just to serve a small portion of viewers that are not subscribing to other digital services, such as cable TV. CanadianTV stations are not required to use their sub-channels. They can broadcast in either HD or in SD. 10 Shows NotTo-Be-Missed On U.K. TV The daily newspaper The Telegraph has suggested that its U.K. readers not miss 10 TV shows in the new season. Only one is a U.S. import, and there is one remake for American TV. These shows made the list: The second season of Downton Abbey, ITV-1; Frozen Planet, BBC-1; PanAm, BBC-2; The Killing, BBC-4; Life’s Too Short, BBC-2; The Comic Strip Presents… The Hunt for Tony Blair, Ch.4; The Jury, ITV-1; The Body Farm, BBC-1; The Choir: Soldiers’ Wives, BBC-2 and Young James, BBC-1. Famous quotes “The overseas magazine subscription price [for RTS’ house organ, the monthly Television] is £135 [U.S.$223] annually, which is £32 more than the [RTS] membership fee.” A note from the U.K.-based Royal Television Society. VideoAge calculated that the RTS publication costs subscribers 57¢ per page, versus 20¢ for VideoAge’s overseas paying subscribers. Giuliano Re V I D E O • A G E 8 11x60
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