Digital backends represent the last processing stage in radio astronomy facilities. Once being collected and properly conditioned (amplified,  moved to base-band, filtered, adjusted in level), intermediate frequency bands are converted into digital format, elaborated according to scientific requirements and then saved in the proper astronomical format.

In this talk, after a short introduction on digital signal processing techniques conventionally applied to radio astronomical signals, an overview of the digital backends under development for the three Italian radio telescopes (SRT, Medicina, Noto) are outlined, along with future perspectives.