Italian Television

Unbelievable. That's the only word that I have for Italian television after watching it for three weeks now. I saw one of the most absurd shows ever last week. A local television-station here in Venice has only enough money to buy the rights of one Champions League match per week. So what do they do on the other day? They show 8 talking heads who are shouting non stop at each other (they look at televison screens which are invisible for the viewer), while one or two men (dependant on the amount of italian teams that are playing) is watching in a seperate construction a television-screen. The camera zooms in on the speaker when something is happening. At the same time the moderator simulates the game on the kind of board they also use for tactical discussions in a school for football trainers.

So you are watching a guy that is watching television, 8 talking heads, the crazy presentator who simulates the game and then, of course, a beautiful young Italian lady who is sitting in the back of the screen, doing absolutely nothing.

* Another example: four times in each match (even when Italy is playing and it is broadcasted on Raiuno) there is IN the match a commercial of +/-20 seconds during a 'dead' moment in the match.

* The whole weekend there was a strike (literally everybody is striking here every 10 days so it seems). What did RAIUNO do? They showed the football match without any comments, because the commentators were not paid on time.

And don\t get me started on the big TV-shows...
That's for another episode..