Italian TV revenues up 4.1%
August 1, 2022
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
The Italian TV market in 2021 saw an upswing in revenues (+4.1 per cent) to €7.9 billion, according to the annual report of the National Communications Authority (AgCom).
Growth was driven by FTA as advertising sales recovered, reaching €4.8 billion and increasing share of total revenues to 39.1 per cent, from 35.9 per cent a year earlier.
Pay-TV revenues dropped to second place, from 40.1 per cent in 2020 to 37.3 per cent in 2021, earning €3.08 billion.
Public funds accounted for 23.7 per cent of the remaining revenues of the TV sector.
Although the level of market concentration decreased, the top three players still accounted for 79 per cent of total resources.
Public broadcaster RAI regained first place, surpassing pay-TV group Sky, affected by a decline in subscription revenues resulting from a reduction in the TV rights to broadcast Serie A football matches.
Fininvest, operating in the sector through the MFE group (formerly Mediaset), consolidated its third position, increasing share of revenue by nearly two per cent.
Among other players, online platforms saw the highest growth and now account for 11 per cent of the total.
FTA and subscription-based channels saw an annual drop of nine per cent in the number of viewers on the average day, returning to pre-pandemic figures.
This decline is especially pronounced in the under-34 age group (-18 per cent).
By contrast, SVoD platforms, after registering a sharp jump in 2020 (from 11.2 to 14.3 million unique users), continued to grow in 2021, reaching 14.9 million unique users, with a peak of 16 million in December.