Communications Regulatory Authority

applied to the television rating survey, while providing that surveys shall take account
of the analogue-to-digital changeover process, without prejudice to AGCOM’s right to
carry out the necessary surveys, should this research not turn out to be in accordance
with the universalistic sampling criteria, with respect either to the population or to the
media involved, under article 1, paragraph 6, letter b, no. 11 of law no. 249/97.
The separate accounting system adopted by the radio and television public
service concessionaires
Article 18, paragraph 1 of law no. 112/04 requires RAI to adopt a separate
accounting system aimed at pricing the cost of the public service provision, in order to
guarantee compliance with transparency and liability principles related to the use of
public funding. Under this provision the radio and television public service
concessionnaire shall draw up the balance of the business year by detailing, in a
separate accounting, revenues deriving from the licence fee and charges incurred for the
provision of the public service.
Items shall be entered according to consistent accounting principles objectively
accounted for, and the analytical accounting principles, according to which separate
accounts are kept, shall be clearly set up. The accounting separation is used to verify
that resources deriving from the licence fee are solely used for the public service
activity and that there are consequently no subsidies in favour of commercial activities.
The separate accounting shall be audited by an auditing firm, to be appointed by
the concessionnaire and chosen by AGCOM among those included in the relevant
register kept at the CONSOB, the Italian investor protection and stock exchange
effectiveness, transparency and development Commission.
Law no. 112/04 lays down purposes and content of the accounting separation
system and delegates the implementation phase to AGCOM, which approves the
accounting separation plan upon discussion with the public service concessionnaire.
With Resolution no. 102/05/CONS of 10 February 2005 AGCOM set out the
accounting principles laid down by lawmakers into precise guidelines which the public
service concessionnaire shall abide by in implementing the accounting separation
system.
As regards separate accounting implementation deadlines, pursuant to the above
resolution the first fiscal year to be considered for accounting auditing purposes was the
one closed on 31 December 2005; in the first implementation stage agreed auditing
procedures were adopted with reference to the year 2004.
In accordance with guidelines laid down by lawmakers and regulated by AGCOM, in
March 2005 RAI finalized a draft accounting separation which was submitted to
AGCOM’s approval.
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