It was 3 January 1954 when television broadcasting began normal operations and Rai came to the small screen with its first channel. By the end of 1954, television was in 58% of Italian homes (by 1961, it reached 97% of the Italian population).
Radio broadcasts, on the other hand, had been commonplace since the early 1920s with three national stations: Primo, Secondo, and Terzo (or networks 1, 2 and 3).

Subscription rates grew constantly over the first ten years, rising from just 24,000 in 1954 to more than 6 million in 1965, and in every home and in every public meeting place, the entire neighbourhood would gather to watch TV.

Television, as a public service, was intended not only as a source of entertainment, but also as a means to educate and inform, and even to help combat widespread illiteracy. In that regard, it helped create a national language much more than schools had been able to do.

At first, programmes lasted nearly four hours, and there was no advertising. Broadcasts began at 5.30 p.m. with La TV dei Ragazzi (‘TV for Kids'), after which there was an intermission, followed by the news at 8.45 p.m. and other broadcasts until 11.00 p.m. In 1957, we saw the first major change with the introduction of advertising and Carosello, an Italian icon in which entertainment took precedent over the actual advertising. In fact, it was typical for children to stay up to watch Carosello, after which they would all go to bed. While television owes it rapid rise in popularity to entertainment, news and information has remained Rai's claim to excellence, with more than 70% of the TV audience following the news. The most popular sports were cycling and soccer, which were broadcast faithfully by Rai.

Towards the end of the decade, recording systems become more diffuse, so that television was no longer tethered to live broadcasts, but could now record, save, and rebroadcast at a later date. In 1962, Italy's second television channel came onto the scene, and, for the first time, Italian television was able to connect via satellite with America. A few months later, the first testing of colour broadcasting began, with the official launch not coming until the mid- 70s.

Also in the second half of the 1970s, regional broadcasts made their debut, and the news anchor-man replaced the newsreader.
In 1979, the third television network was inaugurated, with both regional and national broadcasts, and the first local commercial networks made their entrance into the Italian television marketplace.

The 1980s saw the first testing of Teletext services, subtitling for the hearing impaired, and the Auditel audienceshare ratings system. This was also the decade in which the nationwide commercial networks made their debuts.
In February 1996, Rai officially joined the Internet with its website at www.rai.it, and by the end of 1997 the company launched its first three digital satellite theme-based channels, testing of which had begun in the early 90s.

At the end of 2003, Rai's board of directors approved the creation of the Italian association for the development of digital terrestrial broadcasting, and in January 2004, Rai launched its first offering on the new platform, beginning a new era in the development of the Italian television market.

Starting on 31 July 2009, Tivů Srl - a company set up in conjunction with Mediaset and Telecom Italia Media on 24 September 2008 - launched the free satellite platform Tivů Sat, which repeats the free television offering of the digital terrestrial platform.