Chili streamer ItsArt to bring Italian art and culture to international markets

European on-demand streaming platform Chili is leading the roll-out of ItsArt, a new VoD service focusing on Italian art and culture backed by investment bank CDP.

Giano Biagini

Fledgling online platform ItsArt has been set up by Italy’s ministry of culture and features live and on-demand content that represents Italian culture, from art and music to dance and theatre, as well as documentaries, films and series.

Cinema-focused transactional VoD service Chili owns 49% of ItsArt, with 51% belonging to the Italian government’s investment bank CDP (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti).

The ad-supported and transactional-VoD service is currently available in Italy and the UK, with a major roll out across Europe due by the end of 2021 and other international markets in 2022.

Its CEO is Giano Biagini, co-founder and chief operating officer of Chili, who told C21 the service’s business model won’t be angled towards SVoD, as there are already too many SVoD services in the market and consumers are reaching their limit for subscriptions.

“In Italy, we have an extraordinary set of locations – museums, theatres and opera houses – and in general our cultural heritage is outstanding. So ItsArt’s mission is to create an innovative stage for those institutions to monetise and reach an audience,” said Biagini.

Its content ranges from live streamed events from major theatres in Italy to documentaries focusing on Italian history.

Biagini said the platform is open to adding more content from both Italian and international distributors, but the content must have strong links to Italian culture and heritage.

It currently has a library of around 700 titles available and Biagini said one of the main purposes of ItsArt is to generate revenue for distributors and institutions.

Its revenue share model renumerates licensors with 50-90% of the revenue going back to them, according to Biagini, and the figure will depend on factors such as whether the content is in 4K and how often it is viewed.

Biagini also said ItsArt is currently in discussions with Italian pubcaster Rai about ways the two can work together.

“Rai is very important in Italy. We want to work with Rai and we are negotiating a partnership with them and I think this will be finalised in the near future,” said Biagini.

To hear more from Giano Biagini, tune in to C21FM from 10am today.