Summer TV viewing figures: Mediaset ahead of Rai

Not even football was enough. Nor were the European Athletics and Swimming Championships. Rai went into the summer with a strong sporting line-up, albeit not an exclusive one, but it was Mediaset that came out on top during the beach season. During the ‘off-season’ television period, from 31 May to 25 August, according to Auditel figures compiled by Studio Frasi, the Cologno Monzese-based group attracted an average of 2.8 million viewers throughout the day, compared with 2.5 million for the public broadcaster. And it also came out on top in the most symbolically important contest: Canale 5 beat Rai 1 in prime time (an average of 3.5 million viewers versus 3.2) and over a 24-hour period (1.35 million versus 1.28).

Figures. But behind them lies a difference in strategy. Mediaset decided not to take the core of its programming off the air. It kept ‘La Ruota della fortuna’ on Canale 5, had ‘Temptation Island’ as a ratings and social media sensation, and found a few TV series capable of attracting an audience. Rai, by contrast, relied heavily on the strength of its sports programmes, leaving plenty of airtime for repeats. And that wasn’t enough.

The decision has made its mark. On an average summer’s day, the three Mediaset general-interest channels attracted 2.1 million viewers, compared with 1.7 million for the three Rai general-interest channels. But above all, Cologno Monzese has built up a lead beyond the traditional confines of live broadcasting. Mediaset’s general-interest channels attract 120,000 on-demand viewers, whilst Rai’s attract just 37,000. It is here that Francesco Siliato, a media analyst at Studio Frasi, identifies the crux of the matter for Viale Mazzini: ‘The findings from the research as a whole – covering both the eight-month period and the off-season alone – highlight the need for the public service broadcaster to redefine its concept of a media company’ and to devise ‘a programme schedule capable of building an audience beyond live viewing’. The point, therefore, is not simply to fill July and August more effectively. It is to ensure that a programme remains relevant before, during and, above all, after it is broadcast on television.

This trend is not limited to the summer. In the first eight months of the year, Mediaset attracted 145,000 on-demand viewers every day, compared with Rai’s 113,000. On-demand viewing accounts for 4.7 per cent of the group’s audience share, compared with 3.8 per cent for the public service broadcaster. And the gap becomes even more evident when comparing the two flagship channels: Canale 5 attracts an average of 88,000 on-demand viewers, whilst Rai 1 stands at 52,000.

Rai’s flagship channel can nevertheless claim the top spot for the eight-month period: an average of 1.534 million viewers throughout the day, compared with 1.514 million for Canale 5. However, this lead is inevitably influenced by the Sanremo Festival, the television event par excellence, which in February provided the leading public broadcaster with a boost that Mediaset could not match and which is unlikely to be replicated by public television for the rest of the year. So much so that, as Siliato observes, ‘if the trend were to continue, Canale 5 could finish 2026 ahead of Rai 1 in terms of overall viewing figures’. Even in prime time, Rai 1 retained the lead from January to 25 August, but the gap has gradually narrowed.