The "new television" connected to the Web and on demand is advancing rapidly and the traditional one is resisting, albeit with difficulty, with the extension of its editorial offer through digital catalogues. This is what emerged from the VI Auditel Censis Report presented in Rome. “The new television Italy”.
Let's see first some numbers: “ … 2023 will also be remembered as the year of overtaking Smart TVs on traditional TVs: today in Italian homes there are a total of 21 million Smart TVs and 20 and a half million traditional TVs". In detail, it means that "... 14 million 800.000 families, 60,3% of the total, have at least one Smart TV at home; of these, 3 million and 900.000 have two and 1 million and 100.000 have three or more”. It is an updated snapshot of how much and how television consumption in our country is rapidly evolving from a traditional model, mainly linked to the diffusion DTT, to one in rapid evolution linked to network connection.
The new television is enjoyed and consumed differently
The 'Farm to Fork' from linear television to streaming television is causing an epochal and disruptive mutation and does not only concern the technology of production and diffusion of audiovisual contents but also affects the lifestyles, consumption, the languages of viewers for which, perhaps, it will be necessary to find a different neologism. In the “new television Italy” in fact there is one inside “new television” produced, enjoyed and consumed radically diverse from the recent past.
During the debate, an element emerged to which little attention is paid: ithe “time” factor (which Auditel measures with the TTS, or Total Time Spent, calculated by adding all the seconds in which each device viewed editorial and advertising content from a single channel) and also the time that each individual dedicates to composing their media diet with the possibility of consuming "television" where and when it is best and with your favorite mobile phone or tablet.
Italians who have become creators of their favorite schedule
The quantity and quality of time, together with the specific device used, constitute the determining factors of the ongoing change: “… the Italian who from simple users of television programs have themselves become creators and protagonists of their own schedule”. The key to the success of Smart TV over traditional television is all here: it costs relatively more but allows for greater usability “anywhere, anytime".
The VI Auditel Censis Report also tells us about an Italy that is still highly uneven and does not follow technological evolution in the same way and at the same time: "8 million and 400.000 families, which correspond to 35,2% of the total families who have a TV, where 19 million individuals live, do not even have a television at home compatible with the definitive transition to second generation digital terrestrial and, if the switch off were to take place today, they would be cut off from the possibility of accessing content of linear TV".
Yes: yes switch off of digital terrestrial, with the related scrapping of old TV equipment, is a ghost that haunts the television audience about which we prefer to speak little because everyone is aware that the new thing that is advancing, namely the Smart TV, opens the doors of hell if the national broadcasters are not able to stand the comparison with new products and increasingly aggressive and invasive OTT platforms. Just during the presentation of the Report we learned from our sources that the expected transition of a Rai MUX towards DVB-T2 scheduled for January 10th would be postponed by six months.
The so-called “digital divide” is still relevant in the economical dimensions, in their geographical distribution and generational composition: "Families that have a Smart TV are on average more numerous, younger and richer than those in which there are only traditional devices... in 71,4% of families that have a Smart TV the head of the family is under 65 years old... 37,7% of households where there is at least one Smart TV are of a high or medium-high economic level, compared to 18,3% of those who only have traditional devices". 1 Gigabit broadband as foreseen in the PNRR objective for 2026, although growing rapidly, is still for a few and patchy: connected Italian families are around 15,4 million with a prevalence in the North-West ( 4,7 million), the North-East with 3,2 million and followed by the Center (3,7 million) and the total South and Islands with 4,1 million.
In conclusion: is the future of traditional, digital terrestrial and generalist television already marked? Will television be all Smart? For many more years (estimated shortly after 2030: “BBC preparing to go online-only over next decade, says director general Tim Davie” as declared last year) the two methods may coexist but the trend is clear and difficult to counter and there may not be enough resources and good ideas.
