Switchover Media Preps New Italian Free-to-Air Channel

ROME: Expanding its portfolio of channels, Switchover Media is gearing up to launch the free-to-air service Giallo, dedicated to the crime and mystery genres.

The channel launches on May 14 on the Italian digital terrestrial platform. Initially, it will present a range of popular U.S. TV series, alongside programming from European and independent producers. Programming will range from detective stories to legal dramas, from noir to medical, from thriller to spy tales and classic "whodunits."

Fabrizio Salini, the head of entertainment and factual channels at Switchover Media, commented: “Giallo is the only free-to-air Italian channel celebrating the most popular TV genre. With an offer of high profile TV series, Giallo will grab both investigative genre’ fans and a wider audience looking for emotional and exciting stories.”

Francesco Nespega, the managing partner at Switchover Media, added: “As independent players in an increasingly fragmented market, our objective is to build unique and coherently targeted TV brands and make them accessible to the entire population through DTT. With Giallo we add a new distinctive brand aimed at a female-skewed adult 20-49 target to our free-to-air channel portfolio, which already includes our two very successful kids brands, K2 and Frisbee, and a family-targeted comedy evening block branded Seratissima (translated as ‘big night’), in addition to our young male pay-TV brand GXT.”