Market Highlights

Compared to the last season, the offer of original Italian fiction has grown consistently (+75 hours).

The extra hours are partly bound to the recovery of the daily soap operas ((Il paradiso delle signore and Un posto al sole) which in the past season had been hindered by the closure of production sets due to Covid. The total of 532 hours of the season represent a growth, also when compared to the pre-Covid status (it is the first time in the past five seasons that the fiction offer goes beyond 500 hours)

The significant interseasonal growth in hour volume goes hand in hand with a decrease in the number of primetime evenings (- 12). This is explained by the increase of series produced by Rai Ragazzi (broadcast by Rai Gulp outside of primetime) and by platforms, which ignore programming standards.

The fiction offered by linear TV is still the highest in volume, but platform titles are increasing, albeit slowly (all in all 11% in 2020-2021 ). These include fiction created for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney +, but also Rai and Sky productions offered exclusively on their respective platforms (Rai Play and Now).

Once again, Rai leads the Italian domestic fiction market offering 78% of the hour volume, and 64% of the titles. RaiUno’s fiction remains core in Rai’s strategy. RaiUno alone offers little more than half the seasonal hour volume and little less than half of the number of titles. Rai’s leadership in the production of fiction is also consolidated thanks to the increase of original production within specialized networks (Rai Gulp) and Rai Play.