“We don’t stop at Amadeus.” Alessandro Araimo, CEO of Warner Bros. DISCOVERY Corriere della Sera he admits that the ambition of the “Third Television Pole” was not satisfied by the transition from Rai to Amadeus. Even if Terzo Polo considers this definition inaccurate: “We want to take the audience away from Rai and Mediaset and invest in entertainment, of course. But our system is based on three pillars: linear television – where we are already the third publisher – cinema distribution, which considers us a leader in Italy, a streaming platform which wants to compete with Netflix and Disney +”, explains the 53-year-old , a graduate of Bocconi, “investing in linear television also makes sense because it is organic with the growth that we also want to achieve in the other two assets. We think in terms of a system, not a single product” The fact is. that Discovery has managed to snatch from Rai one of its most successful hosts, who will join on Nove his former colleagues from public television, Fabio Fazio and Maurizio Crozza On the contract figures that have been circulating in recent days – ” 100 million euros” – he neither confirms nor denies, as they say in these cases: “I cannot give the figure, but we are talking about four years with two prime time hours and access in broadcast throughout the year: some will even say that there are not many. And then the number does not matter: the quality of the investment is judged by the hourly cost related to the action, and the income it generates.” Instead, it unbuttons the objectives a little more of the network with the new “purchase”. “It comes from 28%, if I said 27%, I would be a little ambitious”, he responds to Renato Franco on Mail“Today, we are hovering around 4% in this range, if we double this figure, it is already an excellent result even if the network has demonstrated that it can do more.”
The other faces
Many names have been associated with Discovery in recent days, treated a bit like those Arab football owners with almost infinite wallets who source players from all over Europe. Fiorello, D'Urso, Belen. Presenters who are very different from each other but who nevertheless have years of career and large numbers of people in common, loyal to a certain type of audience. “There is a big movement in the market and we have not completed our development plans,” admits Araimo, “there is a priori no no to any project, but it must have both editorial meaning and economical. But in general, we don't stop at Amadeus. » A joke also about the faces already present on the Nine, and who – he assures – will not let themselves be crushed by the new ones big: “Gabriele Corsi is a fundamental face of the channel and we expect him to have his own daily prime time space as well as prime time programs.” However, aside from the purchases, there were a few sales that, in retrospect, can be considered a mistake. One above all, that of Francesca Fagnani who brought the program to Rai2 Beasts: “I would be lying if I said that we don’t regret it, we too make mistakes sometimes.”
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