As in many countries, the television sector in Italy is facing the growing multi-device and multi-platform competition of audiovisual content and in 2019 experienced a transition phase from the traditional broadcast to the broadband model.
According to ITMedia Consulting forecasts for Mediobanca, in the 2019-2021 period, Online TV will be the primary mode of access to TV becoming, in just 2 years, the leading platform together with digital terrestrial and will reach 9.2 million homes compared to 5.9 million in 2019 (CAGR + 25%). On the other hand, Pay-TV will surpasses free-to-air TV for the first time in the history of Italian television.
The goal of the three major operators (Mediaset, Sky, Rai) will drop significantly below 90% of total national television revenues. Thanks above all to mergers, acquisitions and alliances, it is then expected that the VOD (Video on demand) market in Western Europe will exceed 2022 share of € 10 billion in total turnover, with double-digit growth rates (+ 12%).
On a broader level, TV will continue to be the main channel but, to contain the advancement of the OTT services, the consolidation of the sector is expected to continue, as is happening with Mediaset's "pan-European" project aimed at integrating the market Italian and Spanish.
ADVERTISING MARKET
Based on Nielsen data from 2019, the advertising italian market did not produce positive results: advertising sales generally fell by 0.9%, with the sharp drop in TV (-5.3 %) partially compensated by the Over-The-Top (+ 9.2%) and by the radio (+ 1.7%). 2020 is unlikely to depart from this trend even if the 2020 sporting events, between the Tokyo Olympic Games and the EURO 2020 European football championship, could accelerate advertising sales.
Internet services will continue to grow, with Amazon, owner of Prime Video, intending to invest in the production of new Italian content and Disney ready to launch the Disney+ streaming platform in Italy from 24 March 2020. The proliferation of new content will also make the role of the aggregators fundamental , from this point of view, Sky Italia and TIM seem to have an advantage over the competition.