1957 in Italian television
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- RAI extends television broadcasting to 6 hours by day, and 11 hours on Sunday.
- 3 February. With the first airing of Carosello, (see below) advertising is introduced to Italian television. The show is inaugurated by an educational short about car driving, sponsored by Shell and played by the sports journalist Giovanni Canestrini.[1]
- 9 February: Claudio Villa and Nunzio Gallo win the 1957 Sanremo Music Festival, hosted by Nunzio Filogamo, with Corde della mia chitarra. Despite the victory, Villa is criticized for the excessive protagonism and for a resounding wrong note, broadcast on Eurovision.
- 25 March: RAI broadcasts on Eurovision the signing of the Treaty of Rome.[2]
- 16 May. Foundation of TVL (Televisione Libera), presided by Gian Vittorio Figari, which aimed to create a commercial television in Milan. Involved in In this project were the American William A. Berns, manager of RCA and NBC, and the controversial businessman Umberto Ortolani. The firm performs (illegally) the first test broadcastings by an Italian private television, on the UHF band, which was not used by RAI.[3]
- 8 September. In the encyclical Miranda prorsus, Pope Pius XII expresses the Catholic Church’s views regarding to modern mass media. About television, the Pope shows interest but also concern. He asks for a strict control by the civil authorities on its content.[4]
- 19 December. In Rome, RAI inaugurates the Via Teulada Production Center, with 6 studios; the core of the firm moves definitively from Turin to the capital.[5]
- December 31: Images from the sky is the first show broadcast simultaneously in all ten Eurovision member countries. Italy contributes with a recital of operatic arias, performed by Maria Callas from RAI auditorium in Rome.[6]
