RAI

• January 13: Mino Vergnaghi, with Amare, wins the Sanremo music festival, hosted by Mike Bongiorno and Anna Maria Rizzoli. Rai broadcasts integrally only the finally evening, that gets a rating of 22.3 million viewers.^[1]
• 22 February. Announcement of the sentence in the Catanzaro trial, for the Piazza Fontana bombing. The hearings have been, for the first time, integrally shoot  by the RAI cameras. From 25 September, a selection in five episodes  of the proceedings is aired, showing to the public the embarrassed and reticent depositions of politicians, such as Giulio Andreotti and Mariano Rumor.^[2]
• 26 April. The documentary Trial for rape, realized by a feminist collective, shocks the public opinion, showing the victim of a ravishment humiliated and criminalized by the defense attorneys.^[3]
• 3 December: the impersonator Alighiero Noschese, long time a star of Italian television, shots himself in the chapel of the Roman clinic where he was hospitalized; he suffered for years from depression, because the divorce and some professional fails.^[4]  
• 15 December. The adolescent actress Fabiana Udenio announces the beginning of RETE 3 broadcasting. This is the schedule of the first day.

Rete 3 is, in the intents, focused on the local realities, with programs and news realized by the RAI regional offices; however, for years it will be a “ghost channel”, lacking of means and ignored by the public.^[5]

Private channels

In 1979, the  Italian private televisions have a breakthrough: the most active buy massively films and American telefilms, hire RAI stars as Mike Bongiorno and Pippo Baudo and begin to broadcast in National scope (the rule forcing them to operate only locally is bypassed, airing on several local stations  the same show, prerecorded on videotape). Particularly  dynamic is the Silvio Berlusconi’s  Telemilano 58.

RAI

• 3,2,1... contatto – show for children, inspired by the homonymous PBS program; 2 season. It sees the debut of Paolo Bonolis.
• Fantastico (Fantastic) – show of the Saturday evening, aired in autumn and bound to the Lotteria Italia. In the Eighties, as Canzonissima in the Sixties, is the most viewed RAI show and causes also political controversies. The first edition, directed by Enzo Trapani and hosted by Beppe Grillo, Loretta Goggi and Heather Parisi, gets an audience of 23, 600 million viewers.^[10]
• Storia di un italiano (History of an Italian) – history of the modern Italy through an anthology of the Alberto Sordi’s movies – 4 seasons.
• TG3 settimanale (Weekly TG3) - magazine

Private channels

• Ciao ciao (Hello hello) –cartoon show; started on the Mondadori's Telenord, it becomes later one of the most popular show for children of the Fininvest network, lasted for 32 seasons.
• I sogni nel cassetto (Dreams in the drawer) – game show, hosted by Mike Bongiorno (Telemilano 58) – 2 seasons.
• TG Telenuovo (Telenuovo Verona, 1979) by Germano Mosconi.
• Telemattina (TV morning) – with Ettore Andenna, first European show aired in the morning (Antenna 3) – 2 seasons.
• Telemenù – cooking show, with Wilma De Angelis (Telemontecarlo) – 18 seasons.
• The Buggzum (TMC) - game show hosted by Franchy TV and is about deciding the words.
• VG21 news (Canale 21)

Drama

• La promessa (The promise) – by Alberto Negrin, with Rossano Brazzi; from Friedrich Durrenmatt’s The pledge.
• Rocco Scotellaro – by Maurizio Scaparro, with Bruno Cirino; the true story of Rocco Scotellaro, poet, socialist militant and major of his village.^[11]
• Profumo di classe (Classy perfume)  - by Giorgio Capitani, with Ombretta Colli and Aldo Maccione; musical inspired by Pygmalion, but with inverted gender roles (here, it's a female teacher to educate a tramp).
• The tree of Wooden Clogs by Ermanno Olmi and Orchestra rehearsal^[12] by Federico Fellini (both previously distributed in the cinemas).

Miniseries

• Cinema! – by Pupi Avati, with Lino Capolicchio, in 5 episodes; follow-up of Jazz Band, it fictionalizes the adventurous Avati's debut as movie director.^[13]
• Ma che cos’è questo amore? (This love, what is it?) – by Ugo Gregoretti, in 2 episodes, with Stefano Satta Flores and Roberto Benigni, from the Achille Campanile’s humoristic novel; the slap of a woman to an intrusive suitor has the most unpredictable and absurd consequences.

Among the foreign productions, the hit of the year is the American Holocaust, with 20.2 million viewiers.^[1]

News and educational

• Made in England - reportage about England, by Enzo Biagi, in 12 episodes.^[18]
• Il cuore della Jugoslavia è fatto di mulini (Yugoslavia's heart is made by mills) - reportage by Tonino Guerra, in 3 episodes.^[19]
• Sono arrivati quattro fratelli (Four brothers are arrived) – documentary by Maricla Boggio about the child-adoption. ^[20]
• Un autore una città (An author a city) – six great Italian writers speak about their link with the home town.^[21]
• Quando è arrivata la televisione (When television arrived) – documentary by Ermanno Olmi, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Italian television ^[22]

Variety

• C’era una volta Roma (Once upon a time in Rome) – with the Bagaglino troupe; parodic history of the Italian capital.
• Carissimi, la nebbia agli irti colli (Dearest, the fog at the steep hills) – first variety aired on Rai 3.^[23]
• Due come noi (Two people like us) – by Antonello Falqui, with Pino Caruso and Ornella Vanoni.
• Grand’Italia– talk show, hosted by Maurizio Costanzo.
• Luna park – hosted by Pippo Baudo, with Tina Turner as constant guest; debut of Heather Parisi.^[24]
• Tilt – with Stefania Rotolo.^[25]
• Una valigia tutta blu (A fully blue bag) – musical show, hosted by Walter Chiari.

Launches

Conversions and rebrandings

Closures