Minister Franceschini, isn't it that the Netflix of culture becomes another very beautiful?

The idea of ​​the first lockdown would be ready to go: a platform for paid streaming of Italian events and shows. Yet another bizarre creature of the minister destined for a resounding fiasco

(Photo: AP / LaPresse) The Minister of Cultural Heritage Dario Franceschini is stubborn again. He had said it at the end of the first lockdown, and we all hoped it was a meteoric consequence of the fact that he had finally discovered the streaming platforms during the isolation. Come on Dario, forget it, it can't be done.

But no, he did it again: he wants to launch himself at all costs into another of his amazing enterprises, this time destined to create a few more seats in a council administration and few other advantages to the Italian entertainment and culture system, devastated by often unjustified closures. The newspapers call it, as usual with contempt for ridicule as well as danger, the Netflix of culture. When a project is presented riding the name of a successful colossus, the script usually ends in a resounding fiasco.

But this is not the most succulent aspect of the new adventure whose name, says who knows something, "it will be beautiful". Who knows maybe Franceschini doesn't want to brush up on what has never been forgotten, and at this point very suitable, Very Bello? Many will remember the tourist platform designed to accompany the 2015 Milan Expo that cost a few tens of thousands of euros and died in a cot. Or the long and troubled story of Italia.it, the country's promotion site launched, then disappeared behind the chaos of Enit, always at the center of a thousand controversies, never as effective as one would expect from such a tool, which with hindsight many, too many funds has stolen from those who are now on zero income because of the restrictive measures. Yet Franceschini does not give up: try again, Dario.

His new creation is a "platform for enhancing the Italian cultural offer in the world and in particular live entertainment", Franceschini told Repubblica today. The project is in the hands, like almost all impossible missions, at Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (no, at least Domenico Arcuri will not take care of this), with the collaboration of Chili, the video on demand platform that is understood as the only partner remained on the table after the lightning-fast run-away of the last few months.

Even Rai, usually the sacrificial victim of every desire of our local politicians, has miraculously pulled back: it already has the excellent Rai Play and would not have any interest in investing money and resources on a platform that distributes other people's content out of an agreement that its ecosystem can also benefit from. Cuckold yes, even no mazziati. Also because Franceschini's idea is that "Very nice streaming", let's call it that, can be monetized. In short, the so-and-so theater is closed and wants to transmit its mediocre spectacle to the planet, what else does it expect with all that goodness of content available? Go to the site, set a price, stream and then maybe leave the content on demand. This is a plan to get out of the crisis.

The first and most lacerating misunderstanding was born in this continuous presumption that has always marked Franceschini's work: the platform will host finished and finished productions, packaged by third parties, or will it take care of producing it on its own? There is a big difference and it would be nice to understand it before putting in, again, a nice bundle of public money: in the first case it risks being a jumble of productions with different standards that few will have an interest in following because they are disconnected from any strategy. offer, in the second of not having enough funds to set up even a couple of pilot episodes, let alone a series of concerts, prose, operas and shows.

If we think of supporting such an enterprise with 10 million euro one-off that Mibac wants to put into it - it is not clear whether they were drawn from the Recovery Fund or the Single Fund for the show - and another ten scarce Cdp and three from the partner Chili (excluding the value of the technological support), best wishes. The platform led by Reed Hastings, which you fill your mouth with ("other than Netflix", explains even the daring Franceschini, ready to turn Very bello streaming into a European black hole) invested 17.3 billion dollars in 2020 for original productions (200 million last year alone in Italy), Hbo Max two billion, Apple TV + one billion. What are we talking about?

One wonders, outside the natural tenderness that some French illuminations have always produced in the observer, if we are willing to grant the minister yet another raid towards the sure waste of time, money and patience for those who are at home today waiting for the places of culture, following the necessary measures, to reopen. Why are the shops open until 9pm, the shopping centers without problems and the museums not? In other countries, even with stricter measures than ours, cinemas are working (Portugal, Holland, some areas of Spain, areas with less severe restrictions in Great Britain), museums are open (in Belgium, where cinemas are closed ), in France it will start again on 15 December. The Manifesto made a good synthesis. In Italy you can line up to crowd the umpteenth fast fashion chain but you can't see a movie in peace, with mask and spacing and maybe four cats to deceive the void that has opened up in our lives.

Many of the potential technological partners who had expressed interest, not surprisingly, have paraded in recent months, unconvinced by the business model. Which in fact does not exist: if you host other people's content, you are a production aggregator (ever heard of YouTube or Facebook Watch?) And you can monetize with the tools that those platforms have been offering for many years (advertising, views, ticket sales), if produce you need a lot of money. She did not miss a one-off from the ministry, which may also want to have her say on what must be produced and what not.

Meanwhile, all around is silent. Perhaps the "refreshments" have raised some concern. The (chilling) fact remains that culture is not even remotely debated, that there is no trace of it in the dpcm, that we live a Christmas of pure consumption thus telling, again after school, what the country's priorities are.