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Sky Italia tops revenue tables

June 20, 2019

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Italy’s largest TV broadcasters all ended 2018 in the black, with the exception of RAI and La7, which achieved break-even.

According to local daily Italia Oggi, Sky Italia led on turnover with around €3 billion (+3.8 per cent compared to 2017), while profit amounted to €99.59 million. The pay-TV broadcaster could further extend its lead in 2019, due to the expected positive impact from new subscribers on DTT and increased advertising revenue.

Italian public broadcaster RAI placed second, with annual revenues down 1.7 per cent to E2.58 billion, resulting in a balanced budget. However, TV licence fee and advertising revenues are expected to drop in 2019.

Commercial broadcaster Mediaset achieved profits of €83.68 million and revenue of €2.42 billion in 2018 (-5.2 per cent), and the result for 2019 is already negative at -5 per cent.

Overall, the three biggest players account for 92 per cent of the TV market.

Discovery Italia closed 2018 with revenues of around €250 million, up slightly from €244 million in 2017.

Fox Italia’s revenues were €168 million (-2 per cent), with profit of €13 million. The estimate for 2019 is that turnover will be lower.

National broadcaster La7 (owned by Cairo Communication) earned €149.2 million in 2018 (+8,2 per cent on 2017) and the first four months of 2019 have seen a growth of 5.1 per cent.

Finally, Viacom Italia had the highest increase in profit (+18.4 per cent) to €56.8 million, while turnover reached €80.4 million and is set to grow in 2019.

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