High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Television in Italy was introduced in 1939, when the first experimental broadcasting began. However, this lasted for a very short time: when fascist Italy entered World War II in 1940 all the transmission were interrupted, and were resumed in earnest only nine years after the end of the conflict, in 1954. There are two main national television organisations responsible for most viewing: state-owned RAI Radiotelevisione italiana (with its three generalist channels), funded by a yearly mandatory licence fee and Mediaset (owner of generalist stations Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4), commercial network founded by current Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that also holds 50.1% of the Spanish broadcasting firm Mediaset Espana Comunicacion and heads a consortium which owns the television production house Endemol. Currently La7 is considered as the third major network in Italy, it is owned by Telecom Italia Media, the media branch of the...