For this reason, the agreement with the Government prescribes a series of rules and guarantees that Rai must follow to ensure fair public service to the citizens. RAI is 99% owned by the Italian Government Ministry of Economy and Finance and is the sole licensee ( Concessionaria in esclusiva) of the radio, television, and multimedia broadcasting public service. In 1950, RAI became one of the 23 founding members of the European Broadcasting Union. Half of RAI's revenues come from broadcast receiving licence fees, the remainder from the sale of advertising time. RAI broadcasts are also received in surrounding countries, including Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, France, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland, Serbia, Tunisia and the Vatican City, and elsewhere on pay television and some channels FTA across Europe including UK on the Hotbird satellite. RAI has a relatively high television audience share of 35.9%. It is one of the biggest broadcasters in Italy competing with Mediaset, and other minor radio and television networks. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels and radio stations.

RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana ( Italian pronunciation: commercially styled as Rai since 2000 known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

The Philippines were also struck by strong and deadly typhoons in December 2014 ( Hagupit) and 2016, when Typhoon Nockten struck on Christmas Day. Bopha was much stronger than Washi, hitting the region as a super typhoon, and also killed more than 1,000 people. Just a year later, in December 2012, Bopha also hit the southern Philippines region of Mindanao.

The storm was comparatively weak, but dumped massive amounts of rainfall, leading to devastating flash flooding and landslides during the overnight hours while people were sleeping. In 2011, Tropical Storm Washi killed well over 1,000 people in the southern Philippines and never made it to typhoon status. In the last decade, numerous intense and deadly storms have impacted the region. The Philippines is no stranger to catastrophic storms in December.

While activity peaks in the late summer to early autumn, storms can occur in any month of the year. In the West Pacific there is no defined “season” for tropical systems as there are in other basins like the North Atlantic (June 1 to November 30). In addition to the strong winds, flooding and landslides, coastal regions will be on alert for two to three meters of storms surge and shipping vessels will face extremely rough seas over the next several days. The agency says it will likely raise the warnings to Signal 2 on Wednesday and Signal 3 on Thursday as typhoon-strength winds move onshore. PAGASA has already issued Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal 1 for high winds along the coast within the next 36 hours.

Rai & Zenova by Mila S.J