Italian AV sector revenues rose to $13bn as investment hit $2bn in 2023
MIA: Italy’s audiovisual (AV) sector continued to buck the global trend by posting strong growth in revenues and investment in 2023, according to a new study.
The sixth annual report on Italy’s AV business by the Association of Audiovisual Producers (APA), released at the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo (MIA) event in Rome yesterday, showed the sector generated over €12bn (US$13.06bn) in revenues in 2023 – a rise of 20% on 2022.
2023 also saw the sector’s annual production investment grow to €2.041bn, which was double the figure for 2017.
Presenting the report, APA president Chiara Sbarigia highlighted another striking trend, which was that Italy’s linear TV sector continues to show greater resilience than in other Western countries.
It dominated the market with a 71% share and €8.2bn of revenues in 2023, while online streaming platforms (AVoD and SVoD) generated an equivalent 24% share and €2.8bn. Cinema, with the remaining 5% share, has also recovered, following a slump in output and audiences following the pandemic.
Employment within the Italian AV business, which employs around 120,000 people, rose by 3.5% last year.
Elsewhere, Sbarigia highlighted a 70% leap in hours of fiction production aimed at kids and early teen audiences in 2023, identifying it as the big new trend to emerge from the data.
While pubcaster Rai continues to lead as the top broadcaster of original productions for children in output terms, Warner Bros Discovery emerged as the broadcaster with the biggest diversity of titles across its kids’ channels.
Scripted serials continued to dominate Italy’s AV landscape in terms of genres of production, followed by crime and teen shows. Other genres gaining in popularity among producers and audiences included period drama, biopics and romance.
In the streaming world, both Netflix and Paramount+ recorded the biggest increases in numbers and hours of independently produced titles, while other big players, including Amazon, Discovery+, Rai Play and Infinity, all registered falls.
Sbarigia said the Italian industry entered a new phase of development in 2024 thanks to key drivers such as rising demand for content and the tax credit system having helped to strengthen and evolve the sector over recent years.
But she cautioned that the new phase would require “greater attention to the quality of production and production of content that resonates beyond national borders as essential to enhance the rich history of the Italian audiovisual market and to increase the competitiveness of our industry.”
APA’s report was compiled with the help of research companies including eMedia, CeRTA, Symbola, Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates and Geca Italia.
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