Italy’s audiovisual market reached nearly €15 billion in 2023, a 3.9 per cent increase from the previous year, according to a report by eMedia and Istituto Bruno Leoni.

When factoring in consumer spending on hardware and internet access, largely driven by audiovisual consumption, the sector’s value could be as high as €36 billion.

A key trend is the shrinking gap between traditional, linear TV and on-demand viewing, which are now nearly equal. Between 2018 and 2023, the market saw a 3.6 per cent annual growth rate, mirroring Italy’s GDP growth.

Linear TV (both free and paid) generated approximately €8 billion in 2023, roughly the same as in 2022. However, this represents a decline compared to previous years, largely due to fewer households subscribing to paid linear TV services, with that spending shifting towards paid online video options.

Online video platforms generated an estimated €4.68 billion in revenue in 2023. This sector experienced substantial and consistent growth between 2018 and 2023, boasting a compound annual growth rate of 27 per cent and making it the fastest-growing segment of the audiovisual industry.

Consumer spending on online video reached an estimated €2.22 billion in 2023. This figure, based on operator financial data and AgCom information, includes both transactional purchases (rentals and purchases of individual titles) and subscriptions to streaming services. This spending has seen strong growth, averaging 40 per cent annually.

Italy’s audiovisual sector lags behind other major European markets across several key indicators. It receives less advertising investment, represents a smaller share of GDP (0.38 per cent vs the UK’s 1.37 per cent), and sees lower average household spending (6.8 per cent vs the EU27 average of 8.4 per cent).

Public spending on culture and broadcasting is also lower in Italy (0.8 per cent of GDP) compared to countries like France (1.5 per cent). This disparity extends to licence fees, with Italy’s fee (€70 in 2024) significantly lower than the UK’s (€169.50) or Germany’s (€220).

Overall, public funding for Italy’s audiovisual sector is under €3 billion, dwarfed by the UK’s €6.7 billion and Germany’s €10.2 billion. Even per capita, public audio-visual spending in Italy (€48) is the lowest, less than half of the UK’s (€98) and only a fraction of Germany’s (€120).

Other posts by :

1. Russian satellite tumbling out of control
2. FCC boss praises AST SpaceMobile
3. Rakuten makes historic satellite video call
4. Rocket Lab confirms D2C ambitions
5. Turkey establishes satellite production ecosystem
6. Italy joins Germany in IRIS2 alternate thoughts
7. Kazakhstan to create museum at Yuri Gagarin launch site
8. AST SpaceMobile gets $42 or $1500 price target
9. Analyst: GEO bloodbath taking place

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Markets, Research

Tags: audiovisual, emedia, italy, linear TV, vod