Italy: Tivùsat surpasses 6m viewers
February 4, 2021
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Italy’s free-to-air satellite platform Tivùsat, which broadcasts 180 TV and radio channels (including 57 in HD and 7 in 4K), has surpassed 6 million viewers.
From December 2019 to December 2020, Tivùsat registered 40 per cent audience growth, compared to an overall growth of the TV audience in Italy of 11.3 per cent, according to market research by Studio Frasi, based on Auditel data.
In the same period, the time dedicated to the TV offer of Tivùsat increased by 27 minutes per day.
The number of HD channels distributed by Tivùsat has grown, following the progressive rollout of DVB-S2 technology. As of December 2020, six TV channels (Nove, Dmax, Real Time, Cielo, Tv8 and Tv2000) are available only in HD, while 14 channels (K2, Frisbee, La7d, and 11 thematic channels from Mediaset) are broadcasting in DVB-S2.
New additions in January 2021 include La7 HD and Discovery Italia’s Home Garden TV, also in HD.
The switchover to HD will continue throughout the year, including the three flagship Mediaset channels (Rete 4 from June, Italia 1 in October and Canale 5 from December).