1953 in Italian television

In 1953, the experimental phase of Italian television is almost over. During the year, the two repeaters in Milan and Turin are joined by five more ones covering most of Northern and Central Italy. Even before its official birth, however, RAI television comes under harsh criticism from the press, especially for the low quality of the shows and its state monopoly regime.[1]

• 9 March:  the Italian news program has its first mishap. For Stalin's funeral, it broadcasts archive footage of a burial on Red Square, where the Soviet dictator appears alive and recognizable.[2]
• 2 June: the news program redeems itself airing in Italy, the same day, the images of the coronation of Elizabeth II.[2]
• September: after a break for the summer, TV broadcastings restart and become daily. The schedule is composed for an half by movies.[1]
• 3 October : beginning of TV broadcasting in Rome (20 September in Genoa).[1]
• 11 October First issue of La Domenica Sportiva. (see below) Three reports are broadcast, about :
  • the football (soccer) match Inter-Fiorentina for the Serie A 1953-1954, won by Inter 2-1;
  • a 50 kilometres race walk in Abbiategrasso won by Giuseppe Dordoni (the athlete is also the first guest in studio of the show);
  • Tre Valli Varesine cycling race, won by Nino Defilippis[3]

• 22 October The 24 years old Nicoletta Orsomando debuts in RAI introducing a documentary for children; she will be, for forty years, the most notorious and beloved RAI’s “Miss good evening” (female continuity announcer).[4]
• 19 November: the television license fee is instituted.[1]
• 13 December: for the first time, Italian television airs an international football match (Italy- Czechoslovakia, from Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa), with Carlo Bacarelli as commentator, sided by Vittorio Veltroni and Nicolò Carosio.[5]

• La Domenica Sportiva (The sporty Sunday), the longest-lasting show of the Italian television, even today aired.[6]
• Festival della nuova canzone siciliana (Festival of the new Sicilian Song),5 seasons, hosted by Corrado Mantoni at his debut on video.

• Album personale di Wanda Osiris (Wanda Osiris’ personal album) – tribute to the most popular Italian showgirl of the time, directed by Daniele D’Anza.[7]
• Il commesso di libreria (The bookshop’s clerk) – by Franco Antonicelli, first cultural magazine.[8]
• Arrivi e partenze (Arrivals and departures) – gossip magazine about the VIPs coming in or leaving Italy ; debut fof the director Antonello Falqui and the presenter Mike Bongiorno.