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Censis: less TV and books but more smartphones and the Internet

Presentation of the 15th Censis Report on communication - In 2018, television is recording a slight decline in viewers, determined by the decline in its more traditional forms of diffusion: instead, a boom for web TV - The number of people on the net is increasing (78,4% of Italians are connected) but the number of readers decreases: only 42% of Italians read at least one book a year.

Censis: less TV and books but more smartphones and the Internet

TV and radio now listened to on the web, while smartphones and the use of social networks continue to grow. This is what emerges from the 15th Censis Report on the "media diets" of Italians, who have tripled spending on smartphones in the last 10 years: 23,7 billion euros between the purchase of mobile phones, telephony services and data traffic. The digital gap is also shrinking: today almost four out of five Italians connect to the Internet, more than 78%. Against, in 2018 television is recording a slight decrease in viewers, determined by the decline of its more traditional forms of diffusion. Digital terrestrial TV and satellite TV respectively account for 89,9% and 41,2% of users among Italians: both lose 2,3% of audiences in the last year.

Internet TV, on the other hand, continues to grow (web TV and smart TV can count on a user base of 30,1%, +3,3% in one year) and mobile TV (which went from 1% in 2007 to current 25,9% viewers, up 3,8% over the last year). The increase in users of digital video services is one of the most relevant changes of 2018: in one year the number of Italians who watch the programs of the TV on demand platforms have increased from 11,1% to 17,9%, with peaks of 29,1% among young people under 30. The radio continues to prove to be at the forefront of the hybridization processes of the media system. Overall, radio listeners are 79,3% of Italians. If the traditional radio loses 2,9 percentage points of users (today at 56,2%), like the car radio (with 67,7% of users, -2,5% compared to last year), the decrease is compensated from listening to radio broadcasts via the internet with a PC (17% of Italians do it) and above all through a smartphone (with 20,7% of users, +1,6% compared to last year).

Italians who use the internet therefore increase from 75,2% to 78,4% (+3,2% compared to last year and +33,1% since 2007). Those who use smartphones rose from 69,6% to 73,8% (+4,2% in the last year, while still in 2009 only 15% of the population used them). Social network users are still growing, from 67,3% to 72,5% of the population. WhatsApp users are increasing: 67,5% of Italians, 81,6% of under 30s. More than half of the population uses the two most popular social networks: Facebook (56%) and YouTube (51,8%) . The step forward of Instagram is noteworthy, reaching 26,7% of users (and 55,2% among young people). While Twitter drops to 12,3%.

A people of navigators, but not of readers. In 2007, newspapers were read by 67% of Italians, down to 37,4% in 2018 (although in the last year they recorded a +1,6% of users). The decline was not offset by online newspapers, which in the same period only increased their audience from 21,1% to 26,3%. But the other information web portals are consulted by 46,1% of Italians. Weeklies (with 30,8% of readers, -0,2% in one year) and monthlies (with 26,5% of readers, -0,3%) remain stable. Book readers also continue to decline year after year. If in 2007 59,4% of Italians had read at least one book during the year, in 2018 the figure dropped to 42% (-0,9% compared to last year). Neither e-books (read only by 8,5% of Italians, -1,1% in the last year) compensated for the reduction.

Spending on smartphones has tripled in ten years. The value of overall household consumption has not yet returned to pre-crisis levels (-2,7% in 2017 compared to 2007), but spending on smartphones has more than tripled over the decade (+221,6%, for a value of almost 6,2 billion euros in the last year), that for computers increased by 54,7%, telephone services settled down as a result of a tariff rebalancing (-10,4% in the period 2007- 2017, however for a value of almost 17,5 billion euros in the last year) and spending on books and newspapers has suffered a drop (-38,8% in the decade). Overall, in 2017 spending on mobile phones, telephony services and data traffic reached 23,7 billion euros.

The generational divide in media consumption is strong. Young people move with agility in the digital communication system, exploiting all the opportunities offered more than anyone else. Among the under 30s, the share of internet users exceeds 90%, while it stands at 42,5% among the over 65s. More than 86% of the former use a smartphone, but only 35% of the latter do. More than 70% of young people are registered on Facebook and use YouTube, compared to about 20% of the elderly. More than half of young people consult news websites, compared with just a fifth of older people. Almost 47% of the former watch web TV, against just 9,5% of the latter. Over 35% of young people listen to the radio via mobile phone, while only 4% of long-lived people do so. On Twitter there is a quarter of young people and a marginal 3% of over 65s.

The use of social networks in politics is positive for 47% of Italians. Regarding the role played by social networks in political communication, Italians are divided into almost equal proponents and detractors. 16,8% believe that they perform a valuable function, because in this way politicians can speak directly to citizens, without filters. 30,3% think they are useful, because in this way citizens can have their say by addressing politicians directly. Instead, 23,7% believe they are useless, because important news can be found in newspapers and on TV, the rest is gossip. Finally, 29,2% are convinced that they are harmful, because they favor populism through simplifications, slogans and insults addressed to opponents. In summary, the positive judgments on digital disintermediation in politics are expressed by a percentage that is close to half of Italians: overall, 47,1%.

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