Market Highlights

The Covid Effect

Compared to the last season, the offer of original Italian fiction is down (- 7% in hour volume), a direct consequence of the Covid emergency. The closure of production sets starting in March 2020 had an immediate impact on Rai’s daily serials (Il paradiso delle signore and Un posto al sole,) missing out on a few dozen hours of original TV fiction already scheduled in the network’s programming. Furthermore, the opening of a phase of uncertainty (related the performance of the advertising market and the timing of sets reopening) has prompted Rai and Mediaset to preserve its stock, postponing the broadcasting of some of their already produced titles.

A positive Season

With the exception of hour volume, all other indicators are positive: compared to the last Season both the number of titles and primetime evenings of original Italian fiction have increased. Rai (+5 titles, +3 evenings,) specialty channels, and streaming platforms have all contributed to this trend. For the Season timeframe, Sky and Netflix have reached their all-time high in terms of titles (5 each); and both Sky and Fox have increased their number of primetime original Italian titles.

A polarized market

Rai once again leads the Italian domestic fiction market with 74% of the hour volume, 69% of primetime evenings and 64% new titles. Rai is also the only operator that offers fiction across the entire distribution spectrum: generalist (Raiuno) and semi-generalist (Raidue, Raitre) channels, specialty channels (Rai Gulp) and streaming platforms (Raiplay).

In addition to Rai, there are 7 operators that produce Italian TV fiction (Mediaset, Sky, Fox, Disney, Netflix, Timvision and the new entry Amazon Prime,) contributing overall with a production share that waves between 25% (in terms of hour volume) and 35% (in terms of number of titles). During the inter-seasonal transition, Sky and Netflix recorded the most consistent growth, approaching Mediaset’s domestic production volume.

Fragmentation of the productive frame

The increase in the number of buyers and the diversification of production policies has resulted in an increase of the already high fragmentation within the indie industry. Compared to the previous Season, the number of active producers has increased, and the average number of hours produced during the Season has decreased.

Linear TV (down) and streaming platforms (up)

The number of streaming platforms that produce Italian fiction is increasing (this Season, Raiplay and Amazon Prime have sided Netflix and Timvision). Original Italian fiction offered by the platforms is still outnumbered but is growing overall and fast (interseasonal increase from 4% to 9% of the total hour volume).

Fiction Reruns: a strategic resource

Among the side effects of the Covid emergency, network libraries and supplies were essential, mainly for linear TV networks that were forced to overturn schedules and cancel live shows and events due to the lockdown. In this situation, TV fiction has proven to be a strategic resource suitable to be used repeatedly, especially for Rai, which in the past years has stored a vast catalogue of successful titles.