Pay-TV demand up 90% in Italy
September 14, 2012
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
A study conducted by the SuperMoney Observatory, which compares pay-TV offers on the Italian market, has shown that the demand for pay-TV services has grown by 80 per cent in the past six months.
As usual, the peak was reached in August (93.4 per cent), due to the imminent start of the Italian football season. Football fans have always been the most loyal customers of the Italian pay-TV operators – in fact about 70 per cent of quotation requests via the Supermoney portal include football as a favorite.
Among the most watched channels by pay-TV subscribers are movie channels, which recorded a 47 per cent growth and were included in 70 per cent of requests by consumers, while entertainment and documentaries (+41.7 per cent) also fared well.
According to SuperMoney CEO, Andrea Manfredi, Italian TV viewers are not satisfied with the free-to-air offer and are increasingly opting for pay-TV. To meet growing demands, pay-TV operators Sky Italia and Mediaset Premium have renewed their offers for the season 2012-2013.
On the prices, between December 2011 and August 2012 there was a slight increase (from €2 to €5) for all packages under consideration. The only exception is the all-inclusive offer from Sky Italia, which has remained unchanged. On the contrary, there was a substantial increase for the all-inclusive offer from Mediaset Premium (from €22 to €38), partly justified by an increase of the content.