The Italian digital TV sector is worth €3.4 billion, 15% more than in 2007, with DTH platform Sky Italia responsible for 87% of the total.
According to research conducted by Milan Polytechnic’s School of Management, DTT increased its total market share from 8% to 9% in 2008, while IPTV (provided by Fastweb, Telecom Italia and Tiscali) has only 1%. Mobile TV, with 2% of the market, has so far proved a failure mainly due to the high prices. Pay-TV offers account for 86% of the digital TV market, while 14% is financed by advertising. Digital TV is expected to surpass analogue TV in terms of turnover by 2010.
In regards to the number of channels, the survey reveals that the Mobile TV sector has 27 channels on DVB-H with the total number of channels on mobile network dropping from 123 to 114. Web TV is up from 476 to 633 channels, satellite TV channels have increased from 243 to 297, IPTV from 153 to 218 and DTT from 40 to 45. The Video on Demand (VOD) channels have increased their presence both on IPTV (from 23% to 36%) as well as on Web TV (from 64% to 71%) and reduced on Mobile TV (from 75% to 63%).
The “New TV Observatory” research is based on the analysis of more than 2,000 channels broadcast on all digital TV platforms (DTT, IPTV, Mobile TV on the DVB-Hand mobile networks, satellite TV, Web TV).