Italy to measure TV ratings across all platforms
December 16, 2024
From Branislav Pekic in Rome

From December 30th, Italian TV audience measurement company Auditel will start measuring viewership across all platforms: linear TV, PCs, tablets, smartphones, and on-demand services.
The daily Total Audience figures are expected to increase average viewership by approximately 4 per cent, potentially raising an October average of 8.4 million viewers to 8.7 million.
The impact on individual broadcasters and programmes will vary significantly, with those heavily invested in digital platforms seeing considerably larger increases. Mediaset, for example, anticipates a 10 per cent to 36 per cent audience boost, depending on the type of content.
This expanded measurement is expected to increase the value of advertising revenue for broadcasters by aligning online viewership with higher-paying TV advertising rates.
This development builds upon Auditel’s work since 2019, during which they monitored digital viewership, but only released this data to investors. A rigorous process, involving device tracking, stream counting, time spent viewing, demographic profiling, and deduplication with traditional TV data, culminated in a year-long testing phase before the December 30th launch.
From the first half of 2025, the Total Audience figure will include pre-broadcast digital viewership, such as Rai’s on its streaming platform Rai Play. This change could encourage OTT platforms like Netflix and Prime Video to adopt more transparent and standardised audience measurement.
Meanwhile, Mediaset is poised to surpass Rai in 2024 overall TV ratings, potentially repeating its 2023 performance. As of early November, Mediaset holds a slight lead (36.8 per cent share vs Rai’s 36.7 per cent), a significant achievement considering Rai’s broadcasting of the European Football Championships and the Olympics this year.
Mediaset’s strategic approach, combining its main and thematic channels, contributed to its overall success. While Rai frequently outperforms Canale 5 in primetime and pre-evening slots, Mediaset’s strategy maximises its programming resources, resulting in a winning overall share.