Sky Italia to become leading Italian broadcaster in 2010
September 29, 2008
From Branislav Pekic in RomeItalian DTH operator Sky Italia will overtake public broadcaster RAI and commercial rival Mediaset by 2010 in terms of market share, according to a new market survey by ItMedia Consulting.Sky Italia’s share of the overall TV market will rise to 32 per cent, ahead of RAI and Mediaset with 31 per cent each. If the projections are correct Sky Italia’s share will have risen from 23 per cent in just five years. ItMedia Consulting estimates that the Italian TV market as a whole will be worth E9.6 billion in 2010, compared to E8.75 million in 2008, growing at an annual rate of 5 per cent. In comparison, the pay-TV market will grow at a rate of 12 per cent per year, due to increased competition between the platforms.DTT will register the highest growth among the various distribution platforms, from 6 million households in 2008 to 11.9 million in 2010. Out of that figure, an estimated 4.2 million households will subscribe to at least one pay-TV service on DTT, while pay-TV on satellite will have 5 million subscribers.On the other hand, IPTV is not expected to make a major impact on the Italian TV market, totaling 1.8 million subscribers in 2010 (compared to 600,000 in 2008).