Italian regulator cuts DAZN ratings by over 50%
February 11, 2022
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Italy’s Communications Authority (AgCom) claims that sports streaming platform DAZN inflated its viewing figures by over 50 per cent.
This is the conclusion of an investigation launched by AgCom last September “to verify the methodology used by DAZN to measure the audience of Serie A football in order to ascertain the reliability of the data produced”.
The analysis found that “the overall audience measured by DAZN/Nielsen is clearly higher than that measured by Auditel”, amounting to over 50 per cent and with peaks of over 60 per cent during the last four rounds of the championship.
According to Auditel’s technical committee, the deviation between the data should be no more than 10 per cent.
The comparative analysis was carried out only for Connected TVs, as Auditel data does not currently include digital devices such as smartphones and PCs.
In its conclusion, AgCom ruled that, for events broadcast by DAZN, the only audience data considered valid would be that released by Auditel.
Although Auditel’s data is currently partial, it will start measuring the total TV audience (including digital devices) from the first quarter of 2022.