Italy: Serie A big drop in TV viewers
September 2, 2021
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
- The number of Italians watching Serie A football on their TV sets has dropped from an average of 6.7 million per weekend to just over 3.4 million in one year.
The figures, published by Italian daily La Repubblica, relate to the first two rounds of Italy’s top football championship.
However, they perhaps should not be interpreted as a lack of interest by Italian football fans, but rather a consequence of the migration of viewers to other devices besides the traditional TV set.
One year ago, Sky Italia had 5.6 million pay-TV subscribers, in addition to DAZN’s over one million TV viewers.
Data published by DAZN after two rounds and 20 matches played so far, reveal that 27-30 per cent of viewing now comes from mobile phones, 68 per cent still prefer a Smart TV or a traditional TV connected to a set-top box or Fire Stick, while the remaining 5 per cent watch on tablets and PCs.
According to data collected by Nielsen that takes into account all devices, 4.3 million Italians watched matches on the first day of the Serie A on DAZN, a figure that rose to 4.7 million for the second week.
If to the data from Sky Italia is added, which shares the broadcasting rights for three matches during each round, the total figure arrives to 6 million viewers. This indicates that even the significant increase of DAZN’s audience is not enough to compensate for the total drop in TV viewers for the Serie A this season.