Study: 11m Italians listen to radio via TV
March 22, 2021
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
A study by Italian research institute Censis has revealed that 19 million Italians follow radio stations in video format via multiscreen, of which almost 11 million are via a TV screen.
Despite the heavy impact of Covid-19 on advertising sales, radio remains widely popular in Italy, with over 41 million Italians tuning in to radio on a variety of devices.
An important contribution to the vitality of radio in Italy is the increasing popularity of so-called Visual Radio channels, or TV versions of radio stations.
According to the annual Confindustria TV report, 15 Visual Radio channels were available nationally via DTT and DTH (TivùSat and Sky Italia) at the end of 2020.
The biggest players are Mediaset with 5 Visual Radio channels (R101 TV, Virgin Radio TV, Radio 105 TV and RMC Italia TV) and Radio Italia with 3 (Radio Italia TV, Radio Italia TV HD and Radio Italia Trend TV HD).
The vitality of the new radio distribution platform is confirmed by the fact that the number of viewers of Visual Radio channels increased by 8 per cent in 2020.