There Italian TV is it in crisis? After the explosion of channels available thanks to the arrival of digital, this trend has changed and the number would now be in free fall.
The number of television channels broadcast in Italy was in fact constantly decreasing in the last decadegoing from 389 in 2012 to 343 in 2022 and 316 in 2023, according to a report published by Confindustria Radio Televisioni.
At the end of 2023, there were 268 nationally produced channels, a decrease of 18% compared to 2012 (326 channels) and 8% compared to 2022 (292 channels). This decline concerns both free-to-air (FTA) and pay television.
The Pay-TV market also collapses
The free-to-air offering (terrestrial and satellite) dropped from 389 channels in 2012 to 316 in 2023 (-19%). In return, the FTA satellite offer (Tivusat) continued to growreaching 115 channels in 2023, exceeding the number of channels of the Sky Italia pay platform (97 channels).
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The pay-TV market has shrunk drastically, with the closure of several digital terrestrial commercial operators. In 2023, the entire pay segment, including DAZN channels, has shrunk to just 99 channels compared to 242 in 2012.
A significant factor in the 2022 decline was the rearmament of the 700 MHz band and the transition to the new MPEG-4 H.264 standard, which resulted in the loss of over 40 channels on the digital terrestrial platform (DTT) only. At the end of 2023, the DTT offer amounted to 107 television channels, almost all free-to-air (FTA).
The number of high definition channels is increasing
In the last few years, the number of HD channels has more than doubled, going from 61 to 130 (an increase of 113%). In particular, in 2023 alone the channels that broadcast exclusively in HD exceeded 90 channels. This growth came at the expense of SD channels, which went from 264 in 2012 to just 136 in 2023, a decline of 49%.
The Italian television scene is dominated by 35 large media groups, of which the top five control 63% of the total market with a total of 168 channels. The Sky Italia Group is in the lead with 73 channels, followed by Rai (46 channels), Mediaset Group (20 channels), Warner Bros. Discovery Italia Group (18 channels), Paramount Italia (11 channels) and Sciscione Group (11 channels).
