Italy: TV viewing up 108min a day during Covid-19
March 31, 2020
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Italians are spending 356 minutes a day in front of the TV screen, or 108 minutes more than in the same period last year, according to Auditel and Nielsen data, processed by Studio Frasi.
The lockdown has led to a 20 per cent growth in the consumption of news and in-depth analysis programmes. However, Italians are also seeking to escape from news on the Covid-19 pandemic by watching more TV series, movies and entertainment.
In the period March 8th – 28th, an average of 14.5 million Italians tuned in front of a TV set, 4.4 million more than last year and 2 million more than the previous week.
The main VoD platforms have seen a 18 per cent growth in the reference period, with the highest peaks registered by Amazon Prime Video (+511 per cent interactions), Timvision (+128 per cent), Infinity (+85 per cent), Disney+ (+243 per cent), and Netflix +15 per cent.
Meanwhile, pay-TV platform Sky Italia has announced it will add two new movie channels, available free of charge to subscribers from April 4th to 30th.
The Sky Cinema #IoRestoACasa 1 channel will be dedicated to the whole family with the latest films, cult movies of the past and first run movies, while Sky Cinema #IoRestoACasa 2 will offer action movies, including TV premieres, timeless classics and great Italian movies.
Also, during April, subscribers who already have all Sky packages will be offered, every week, several movies on VoD service Primafila, while those who do not subscribe to the Sports and Family channels will be able to watch them free of charge.