Subscriptions to Netflix and the other Video on Demand (VoD) platforms have grown to 1.2 million in the last six months, to the detriment of traditional TV which has seen a fall in audience of nearly a million over the last year.
Ratings decrease for traditional TV: Auditel (elaborations from Studio Frasi for Il Sole 24 Ore ) has reported a fall in audience of 341,000 viewers in the “average day” and of 832,804 viewers in prime time (data referred to the TV season which goes from mid-September to the end of May). Here the data: at the first place Rai with an audience share of 36.7% and 125,000 viewers less than in 2018 in the “average day”, second place for Mediaset with an audience share of 31.5% and 185,000 viewers less, Sky follows at 6.92%, Discovery at 6.7%, Cairo at 4.21% and Viacom at 1.45%. In prime time Rai and Mediaset hold the leadership, but see a fall in audience compared to 2018: -383,752 viewers and -37.7% audience share for Rai, -562,518 viewers and -31.67% audience share for Mediaset.
However, Auditel measures TV ratings using only a television survey sample at the moment. Within June smartphones, pcs and tablets samples will compose Auditel’s panel, clarifying whether a part of the audience has just moved to other devices.
In the meantime, however, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and the other VoD platforms are expanding. According to a study by Ernst & Young , subscriptions to pay-to-view platforms have grown to 8 million (January, 2019) in Italy, 1.23 million subscribers more (+18%) in the last six months, overtaking even traditional pay-tv. Among the VoD platforms which EY has included in the study there are TIMvision, Sky’s Now Tv, Mediaset’s Infinity and Dazn, besides the giant Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
EY has monitored also free-to-view platforms like YouTube, RayPlay and Mediaset Play. The number of users is growing: 22.6 million users (January, 2019) compared to 20.9 in June, 2018. The total number of subscribers (pay and free-to-view) amount to over 30 million, 70% of Italian Internet users.
