Mediaset: a slow start to the season – 450,000 viewers lost in prime time

Mediaset remains in first place, but the season has got off to a slow start for the Cologno-based group. In the first month after the summer, it lost nearly 450,000 prime-time viewers: a 5.8 per cent drop compared with a year earlier. At the same time, Rai gained 582,000 viewers (+9.4 per cent). Mediaset still leads, however, with 7.4 million viewers compared to 6.9 million for the public broadcaster. But its lead is narrowing. And on Canale 5, the problem isn’t limited to a single programme: it starts in the early evening, continues through Tg5 and extends to the evening shows.

Studio Frasi’s analysis of Auditel data for the period between 13 September and 10 October reveal that the broadcaster – currently working with MFE on its pan-European expansion project – has had a difficult start in the 8.30 pm to 10.30 pm slot. Francesco Siliato, a media analyst at Studio Frasi, interprets the decline as ‘a clear sign of delayed preparations for the start of the season, coupled with viewer fatigue caused by an excess of repeats’. Mediaset also saw a decline over the whole day: nearly 98,000 fewer viewers, down to 3.05 million. Rai fell to 2.73 million, losing around 48,000. It is the evening slot that makes the difference. In the early evening on Canale 5, ‘Caduta libera’, presented by Max Giusti, returned to replace ‘Avanti un altro!’ with Paolo Bonolis. According to Siliato, ‘the decline in the game show’s ratings drags down Tg5, which fails to regain its audience and provides weaker support for “Ruota della fortuna”. The decline is already evident from 6.30 pm, continuing through the news bulletin and the first part of the programme’.

*La Ruota*, therefore, loses viewers, but regains some during the episode: it is the only programme in the block to see its audience grow from start to finish, attracting a larger prime-time audience than that of *Tg5*. That said, it is also the Canale 5 prime-time slot with the lowest viewing figures. ‘Tu si que vales’, for example, has dropped from an average of 4 million in 2025 to 3.4 million at the start of this season: enough to beat ‘Ballando con le stelle’, but not to make up for the decline. Signs of a decline are now also evident on Tg5. The evening news lost 504,000 viewers (-13.7 per cent) and stood at 3.18 million: below Tg1’s 4.13 million. The pull of the early-evening slot is a key factor, but the difficulty of retaining the audience for news coverage remains. There is no mass shift towards rivals: Tg1 gained just 16,000 viewers, reaching 4.13 million; Tg3 gained 2 (to 1.66 million), whilst La7’s news programme lost nearly 10,000, falling to 1.38 million.

Rai, on the other hand, is finding the impetus to bounce back in sporting events. Rai 1, boosted by the national football team, has regained its primetime lead: 4.17 million viewers and a 22.09 per cent share, an increase of almost 190,000 people. Canale 5 lost 313,000 viewers and fell to 3.85 million, with a 20.37 per cent share, followed by La7 (1.12 million; a 5.2 per cent drop in audience).

Canale 5 retains its lead in average daily viewing figures, but by a margin of just 24,000 viewers: 1.456 million compared with Rai 1’s 1.432 million. And, according to an analysis by Studio Frasi, it owes this lead to catch-up viewing: when it comes to live viewing, the public broadcaster’s flagship channel comes out on top. For Mediaset, the good news comes from Rete 4, which gained 32,000 viewers over the course of the day, rising to 404,000 and overtaking Rai 2 and Italia 1.