TV slows down undermined by social media, information and on-demand hold up

Generalist television still remains the mainstay of Italian information and entertainment, but with a background that now sounds clear: the viewer is leaving, slowly but surely.

For Italian television, which has closed its doors for the 2024-2025 season (15 September to 31 May) - and is busy serving up the appetiser for the new season with the programme schedule presentations scheduled for Rai (27 June); La7 (3 July); Mediaset (8 July) - the balance sheet shows both an empty and a full part of the glass. Regarding the latter: those who expected a slump have not been satisfied. As for the empty part of the glass, however, the Auditel data processed by Studio Frasi leave little room for doubt: people are watching less TV. Or rather, people are watching less linear television in real time. In prime time, the average audience has slipped below 20 million for the first time, with a dry loss of over 326 thousand viewers (-1.6%). A wound not healed either by the channels 'not recognised' by Auditel - Netflix, Disney+ and the other over-the-top channels only grew by 45 thousand - or by alternative devices. The TV set remains on, but less than before. Only the on-demand viewing of 'lost' live programmes - a phenomenon growing by 4% - seems to offer a hint of resilience: those who really love TV, go for it even afterwards. All in all: between recognised and unrecognised we are talking about 10.3 million viewers in the average day (-1.28%) and 23.9 million in prime time (-1.16%).

More Mediaset in the average day (3.14 million; 37.28%; -2.82% audience share against Rai's 3 million with a 36.41% share and a 3.13% audience drop) and more Rai in prime time (7.5 million; 37.9% share and -0.76% audience share against Mediaset's 7 million; 35.45% share and -5.29% audience share). And in any case more Rai 1 than any other network: 4.7 million in prime time (+5.5%) and 1.63 million in the average day (+0.68%). On the other hand, Channel 5 leaves on the ground 11% of its prime-time viewers (-349,266 to 2.8 million) and 6.2% of its all-day audience (-96 thousand to 1.43 million on average).

If Rai 1 is going strong, the other public service generalist networks are struggling. Rai 2 relegates in prime time to last place among the seven sisters of Italian TV (see table on page), surpassed in one fell swoop by Italia 1 and a surprising Rete4. The latter, in fact, grew by 7.9%, reaching 930,362 viewers.But La7 also scored a hit: thanks to incisive information programming in turbulent times, Cairo's network gained 5.94%, taking fourth place in prime time with 1,171,668 viewers, overtaking Rai 3.

In this context, the dynamics of the driving function of information on TV, sanctioned for Italy also by the latest Digital News Report by Reuters, is evident. 'Social media,' comments Francesco Siliato, media analyst at Studio Frasi, 'make everything simpler: I like it, I don't like it; I say it, I write it, I photograph it. Then from the world comes complexity, wars approach and demand attention. We need to understand more and television becomes central again'. Thus, evening Tg1 is confirmed as the most viewed (4.6 million; 24.49% share and audience increased by 0.2%), followed by Tg5 (3.6 million; 19.25% share and -3.49% audience); Tgr (2.4 million; 13.81%; -0.34%); Tg3 (1.84 million; 12.44%; -0.90%); Tg La7 (1.4 million; 7.28%; +10.38%); Tg2 (897.517; 4.84%; -9.7%); Tg4 (640,373; 4.35%; +16.95%): Studio Aperto (573,552; 4.74%; 10.02%). SkyTg24's all news is also on the rise (+7.07% to 55,000 viewers). Boom for La7's Tg therefore, but with eyes on the Instagram post of director Enrico Mentana: "On 2 July it will be 15 years since I took over the helm of TgLa7" and again: "You have to understand when it's time to take a break, without others, or the public, telling you".