Rai Südtirol

Country	Italy
Broadcast area	South Tyrol
Programming
Picture format	1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner	RAI
Sister channels	Rai 1 Rai 2 Rai 3 Rai 4 Rai 5 Rai Movie Rai News 24 Rai Premium Rai Scuola Rai Sport Rai Storia Rai Yoyo Rai Ladinia Rai Italia
History
Launched	7 February 1966
Former names	Rai Sender Bozen (1996-2010) Rai Bozen (2010-2014)
Links
Website	raisudtirol.rai.it (Italian) raisudtirol.rai.it (German)

Rai Südtirol (lit. transl. Rai South Tyrol) is an Italian free-to-air regional television channel owned by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana and operated by RAI's South Tyrolean service. It is the company's German and Ladin languages television channel aimed at the German-speaking public of South Tyrol and the Ladin-speaking population of Ladinia. It was launched on 7 February 1966, it broadcast from its studios in Bolzano and unlike all other RAI channels, it carries no commercials.

Transmissions began on 7 February 1966 as Rai Sender Bozen. Programming initially occupied just one hour daily, the broadcast was carried out from Teatro Cristallo in Bolzano and aired on the local frequencies of Rete 2 (today's Rai 2) between 20.00 and 21.00.

In this period the provincial autonomy was still far from being achieved; South Tyrol was affected by the attacks of secessionist terrorist groups. In such a climate, the concession by the Italian government of a programme in German, when other requests are not satisfied, was seen by South Tyrolean politics as the imposition of a pro-government instrument of control. One of the reasons for setting up the channel was also to push towards the cessation of attempts to receive Austrian and German-speaking television programmes in general, a faculty invoked by the SVP. Therefore, on the occasion of the launch of the programs, the president of the Provincial Council of Bolzano and father of provincial autonomy Silvius Magnago, in open controversy with the choice, refused to leave a message on the German-speaking RAI; to replace him, the bishop of Bolzano-Bressanone, Msgr. Joseph Gargitter.

On 15 December 1979, with the birth of the third network, Rai Sender Bozen began broadcasting on its own dedicated channel. At the same time, a "bis network" was created, a fourth channel relaying Rai 3 when Sender Bozen wasn't broadcasting, with the aim of airing the German output without blocking the Italian output of the channel.

In 2013, the channel officially assumed the new name of Rai Südtirol and the number of hours of the entire television programming was increased.

Unlike other RAI channels, Rai Südtirol does not broadcast 24/7. Instead, programming from Rai Südtirol and Rai Ladinia are broadcast in the evening. Outside its operation hours, the channel's frequencies are used by Rai 3.

• 
  2010–2014 (as Rai Bozen)
• 
  2014–2019
• 
  50th anniversary (2016)
• 
  2019–present

• Tagesschau, the daily newscast.

• RAI Südtirol Official website (in German)