The viewing modes change
Television remains central in the media diet of Italians, but the methods of use are changing, increasingly individualized and on demand, with the construction by each member of the family unit of its own program, resulting from the combination of different contents on different screens and in different places. In fact, over 4 million Italians follow linear television programming on their smartphone (+ 6.3%), while 2.7 million follow it from their PC (+ 41.1%) and 1.2 million Italians watch TV content on the tablet. In addition to those who follow linear television programs on the web, there are also those who use all the screens available to connect to the internet and build their own schedule made up of on-demand content. 3.5 million Italians download films from the Internet (+ 33.3% in the last year) and over 13 million watch non-linear content on on-demand television platforms (+ 38.2% in the period considered). Not to mention that 24 million Italians use the various platforms available on the internet, mostly for a fee (+ 48.4%)
Excluded and digital precarious
The 2.3 million (9.8% of the total) of non-connected Italian families are joined by another 7.2 million families (29.9% of the total) who have only the mobile line. 27% of families whose members include at least one student and / or worker connect only from a mobile line and 15.6% exclusively from smartphones, while 8.4 million Italian families, 35.1% of the total , has neither a PC nor a tablet at home. The share reaches 72.8% among those on a low socio-economic level.
Millions of televisions to be scrapped
There are 43.1 million televisions in Italian homes. 96.9% of households have at least one television; 9.2 million (38.6% of the total) own only a television; 9.4 million (39.2%) have two televisions; 3.5 million (14.6%) have three; 1.1 million (4.6% of the total) have 4 or more televisions and, finally, 575 thousand families (equal to 2.4% of the total, in which 1 million and 260,000 individuals live) do not own or watch TV. Almost six million sets (13.2% of the total) can almost be considered antiques because they were purchased more than 10 years ago; then there are 12 million televisions for which it was not possible to trace the date of purchase. In summary: 27.7 million televisions (64.2% of the total), owned by 12 million families (51.2% of the total), today are not compatible with second generation digital terrestrial single standard used “starting from January 2023”, and therefore with an undefined date, is established by law). There are, however, 8.4 million sets, owned by 3 million Italian families, equal to 12.8% of the total, which do not qualify for the first step, launched on 20 October, passing from the MPEG standard. 2 to Mpeg-4 (for now only for 9 Rai and 6 Mediaset channels).