Italian video streaming market grows 52% in 2020
March 12, 2021
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Video streaming in Italy grew by 52 per cent in January 2021 compared to the same month last year, while linear TV grew by only 11 per cent in the same period.
These figures come from a study by digital marketing consultancy Sensemakers that confirms last year’s positive trend in video streaming consumption, especially during the two lockdown phases (March-April and October-December).
Among digital video consumers, 80 per cent regularly watch SVoD content (+7 per cent from the June survey) while 64 per cent (+5 per cent) are frequent consumers of AVoD content.
Regular consumption increased by 7 per cent between the two lockdowns, while SVoD services are highly appreciated by users (average rating above 8).
Sky Italia led for audience views in 2020 (47 per cent), followed by Mediaset (36 per cent) and RAI (12 per cent). However, Mediaset placed first for time spent watching content online (38 per cent), ahead of RAI (32 per cent) and Sky (25 per cent).
RAI saw the highest growth in audience views (+166 per cent), while Sky saw the biggest increase in time spent (+177 per cent).
Streaming is mainly used for watching movies and TV series (with percentages above 50 per cent) followed by entertainment and sports content.
Connected TVs are used by 78 per cent of heavy users and these devices also account for 52 per cent of the time spent viewing streaming content.
Although users spent more on video streaming services (from €23.70 to €27.00 per month), the maximum number of subscriptions remains stable at 2.3.
The mixed business model (subscription + advertising) seems to be the way ahead for video streaming services, not least because 59 per cent of heavy users favour the inclusion of advertising in exchange for a reduction in the subscription fee.