Almost 80 years after it first went on air, Vatican Radio is to start broadcasting adverts, according to its director Federico Lombardi.

The station head, Pope Benedict XVI's spokesman, said that "between €200,000 and €300,000 per year" would be raised, adding that the channel, set up in 1931, "needs funds" but that the income would be used for "new initiatives, new programmes".

The Vatican's finance chief Renato Boccardo said the policy change came about amid concerns from the Vatican state's administrators.

Electricity producer Enel will be the first brand name to be carried on the station, with its advert transmitted in Italian, English, Spanish, French and German.

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