2011 was characterised by further growth of the dissemination of DTT. At the end of the year, the all-digital regions had become fourteen, accounting for 78% of the Italian population.

The most significant effects of the expansion and diversification of the television offering include the increase in the television audience, which continues the growth trend that, since 2009, has witnessed the media rise to increasingly higher levels compared to previous years.

2011 was yet another record year for viewing figures: for the first time since the Auditel measuring system was introduced, more than 10 million viewers were reached over the whole day (10.1 million compared to 9.8 million in 2010) while the prime time audience was of 25.5 million viewers (25.8 million average viewers, clearly higher than the previous peaks reached in 2004 and 2010 in which the audience reached 25.1 million).

These results are excellent, particularly because they were achieved in a year with no big sports events (World and European Football Cups, Winter and Summer Olympics) which usually make a considerable contribution to the growth of television consumption.

In a competitive and quickly transforming setting, the Rai Group continues to confirm its leading role.

On an average day, Rai consolidates its share with 40.2% di share (-1.1% compared to 2010) compared to Mediaset’s 36.3% (-1.3%).

This occurs within the scope of a general increase in the shares obtained by specialized satellite or digital terrestrial channels: excluding the Rai and Mediaset networks measured by Auditel, the totality of ‘satellite TV broadcasters’ rises to 11.1% (+1.6 share points on 2009), while ‘Other terrestrial TV broadcasters’ reach 8.8% (+0.2%).

The result of the Rai Group is largely due to the performance of the specialized channels (‘Rai Specializzate’), which obtain a total all-day share of 4.8% (with an increase of +1.8 points compared to 2010), influenced mainly by Rai 4, Rai Premium, Rai Yoyo, Rai Movie and Rai News (which more than doubled its share).

This makes Rai Italy’s first digital broadcaster, followed by Mediaset (4.4%), Sky (4.0%), Fox (1.7%) and all the other Italian and international competitors such as Discovery, Switchover Media, Disney, Viacom, and Turner.
Rai’s general-interest channels, like those of the competition (apart from La7), endured a physiological decline, with the three Rai channels maintaining their leadership:
• Rai 1 with a share of 18.7% is confirmed as the most watched channel and retains its advantage over the leading Mediaset channel (-2 points compared to 2010 for both channels);
• Rai 2 is at 8.2% (-0.9 points) and is the fourth Italian channel, bypassed only by Canale 5 and the other two Rai channels;
• Rai 3 is stable at 8.5% and becomes the third Italian channel.

In Prime Time the Rai Group confirms its leadership with a share of 41.3% (- 2.4% compared to 2010) against Mediaset’s 36.8% (-0.7% points).

The prime time slot has also been characterised by a growth in ‘Other TV’ to the detriment of the traditional general-interest offering, with all ‘Satellite TV’ totalling a 9.9% share (+1.4 percentage points on 2010) and ‘Other terrestrial TV’ climb to 7.5% (+0.2).

Rai 1 is confirmed as the leading channel with a 18.9% share and bypasses Canale 5 by almost two percent despite the absence in 2011 of important football events, which conditioned performance (-3.4 points compared to 2010, which was characterised by the World Cup and during which an Italian team won the Champions League).

Rai 2 and Rai 3 continue to be the most watched channels after the leading channels, with 9.5% (-0.4 points compared to 2010) and 9.0% (-0.1 points) respectively.

The combined offering of the ‘Rai Specializzate’ channels reaches a share of 3.9%, up +1.5 percentage points compared to 2010.

By the end of the first half of 2012 the switchover to DTT is expected to be completed across the whole of Italy.
Between May and June, the analogue signal will also be switched off in the Southern Italian regions which have still to become involved: Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily.

For details on the competitive setting for the near future, it is interesting to focus on viewing figures for the ‘all digital’ regions which, at the end of 2010, had already completed the switchover to DTT (Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta, Lombardy, Trentino Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Campania and Sardinia). These areas, which comprise about 65% of the Italian population, had a broader television offering than the rest of the country for the whole of 2011.

The results coming from the ‘all digital’ regions are very positive and prove the validity of the choices made by Rai.

On the average day, Rai prevails over Mediaset even more than in the other areas of Italy: Rai group reaches 40% against Mediaset’s 35%.

Over the 24 hours, Rai’s three generalinterest channels have overtaken those of the direct competition (33.5% against 29.6%).

The ‘Rai Specializzate’ networks, with an offering on DTT divided over eleven channels, obtain a total share of 6.6% and place five channels in the ranking of the 15 most popular digital broadcasters (free and pay). Particularly evident are Rai 4 (1.2%), Rai Premium (1.1% share) and Rai YoYo (1.0%).