MUMBAI: After debilitating Italy right at the outset, Covid2019 is now hitting the country in a different way. The Television Market in Italy 2020-2022 report published by Rome-based ITMedia Consulting has estimated that the Italian TV market has lost over €400 million in value this year.
The report states that pay-TV is the only resource that is growing, while advertising has dropped by 13 per cent.
Notably, pay-TV has surpassed FTA for the first time in terms of revenues, while the TV market should start growing again as a result of the considerable increase in pay-TV revenues and the partial recovery of the advertising market.
A strong contribution is expected with the entry of Sky Italia as a network triple player operator and SVoD, which should see a 31.3 per cent CAGR in the time period.
Although Sky Italia, Mediaset and RAI will remain the dominant players overall (over 75 per cent of the total combined), they will lose market share to other operators whose joint turnover will reach almost €2 billion in revenues. While Mediaset still collects over half of the advertising investments, it is losing ground and now accounts for less than 20 per cent of overall TV sector revenues.
Sky Italia is still the main market player, albeit with a downward trend, as new and aggressive VoD players increasingly gain market share.
The report highlights that traditional players that rely only on consolidated business models are being penalised, to the benefit of new players that are able to exploit new technological means and changing viewer demand, increasingly moving towards a personalised, multi-platform and multi-screen experience.
The pandemic has accelerated and amplified ongoing shifts in consumers’ behaviour, pulling forward digital disruption and forging industry tipping points that wouldn’t have been reached for many years. As a result, the entertainment and media world in 2020 has become more remote, more virtual, more streamed. In the Entertainment & Media Outlook in Italy 2020-2024 report predicted that total E&M revenues in Italy will rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.0 per cent to reach €39.5 billion in 2024.
In conclusion, this year's ITMedia Consulting report shows how Italian consumers today are also following the new consumption patterns accentuated by the pandemic. They are watching TV with a greater awareness of the different offers and business models, both linear and non-linear.
Traditional broadcast TV has sensed the looming and very dynamic presence of online streaming services, and adapting their business models to match those of international operators. Even Sky is leaving no stone unturned to develop new strategies to better confront these internet-based players.
The report also points out how operators who rely solely on consolidated models are being penalised, to the benefit of new entrants who are able to exploit the opportunities offered by technological evolution and the changing needs of demand, translating them into an attractive offer to the public, increasingly oriented towards personalised use, multi-platform, multi-screen, even on mobile.
