"The revenues of the telecommunications sector and of the individual segments that make it up (telecom, media and postal services) again represent over 2017% of the national GDP in 3" said this morning Angelo Cardani, President of the Authority for Guarantees in telecommunications in presentation speech of the annual report in the Chamber of Deputies.
With this general figure, a complex year of a sector that is going through great transformations and highlighting complex dynamics, many of which are completely unknown, is photographed and summarized. The trend confirms its slight growth with +1,2% compared to last year where, in particular, the relevance of the Internet and postal shipments emerges, while observing a significant reduction of the other sectors, in particular the radio and television sector and publishing.
In detail, the Authority's report reports that the landline broadband access with a +3,8% which partially offset the drop in mobile network services with -1,9% (more traffic is generated from homes than from SIM cards); one is detected 3,5% drop in free-to-air television revenues while it holds the general volume of pay-TV; the publishing sector confirmed a negative trend with a sign of -5,2% and newspapers and periodicals suffered in particular with -8,9% where revenues fell to 3,6 billion; advertising further confirms a significant change of direction towards the online world with a growth rate of 12% with an absolute value of over 2,2 billion euro; finally, there is a substantial drop in traditional postal services compared with the significant growth of courier services thanks also to the strong development of e-commerce.
TV, INTERNET AND INFORMATION: A PUBLIC GOOD
Once again, television appears to be central as a means of communication in terms of importance and credibility in the dissemination of news, while the same does not seem to happen with regard to online information and the worrying phenomenon of fake news circulating on the net. "The contrast
disinformation and the drift of fake news - Agcom president Marcello Cardani underlined - acquires meaning and substance only if placed in the context of defending the principles of our democratic systems. We are well aware, in fact, that those phenomena and that drift put at risk not only,
trivially, the survival of the classic means of information, as well as, above all, the safeguarding of the classic models of public opinion formation and consensus building, and therefore,
ultimately, of our democratic arrangements”.
2017, THE YEAR OF “LIQUID TV”
TV loses an overall 2% of revenues in the face of a process that appears to be increasingly significant. “2017 can also be remembered as the year of the definitive consecration of “liquid television”” states Cardani. Citizens are growing exponentially (about 3 million), mostly young people, who use television services in a non-linear way, downloading onto their device your favorite products and composing your own schedule. It is interesting to note that traditional TV maintains its own reference basin in terms of prime time audiences (over 25 million).
ITALY IN 25TH PLACE FOR ULTRA BROADBAND ACCESS
The president of the Authority placed much emphasis on the European framework. First of all, he reaffirmed the concept relating to the creation of a "GigaBit Society” where every citizen must be allowed access to the very high-speed network, capable of guaranteeing the use of products and services at guaranteed conditions in a single digital market. We talk about e-democracy in an enlarged regulatory framework where interventions are needed in terms of rights, above all of people and information.
The comparison between our country and the rest of the continent is still complicated. The objective of ensuring coverage at 100 megabytes does not seem immediate. The sore point of the national framework emerges, where there is still a significant gap with a large part of Europe which instead travels with other numbers on fixed networks and where even digital illiteracy seems to characterize a large part of our culture. Last year, from source DESI 2017, Italy was in 25th place for the number of ultra-broadband subscriptions and in 23rd position for NGA - Next Generation Access coverage.
THE KNOB OF THE AUCTION FREQUENCIES: 2,5 BILLION IN THE BASIS
An explicit reference has been made to the topic the reallocation of valuable frequencies around 700 Mhz (Firstonline has dealt with it several times), recalling that the start of procedures for the rights of use of these precious resources is scheduled for next September. From the outcome of the auction, the State has budgeted a minimum income of 2,5 billion euros provided that no "hitches" arise due to the appeals presented to the TAR by Mediaset, by the Cairo Editore Group and, lastly, by from Retecapri. However, the "implementation process" of the National Frequency Plan must first be defined in order to guarantee fair economic conditions for operators and protection for consumers.
Finally, particular attention was paid to the complex and delicate issue of big data. It is a new frontier that affects vast sectors of social and political life: it ranges from social to professional relationships, from opinions, languages, individual and collective behaviors to consumption propensities and choices. Hanging over all of this is a big question about security: How do you control these huge masses of data and sensitive information? Are the system of algorithms that govern big data neutral? Who do they belong to? Is it conceivable that it could be a "public" good and that as such it can or should be subjected to adequate regulatory scrutiny? Complex questions to which the Authority promises to intervene.
