“Out of politics from music” you hear around and it's like saying "ride a bicycle without pedals". Sanremo, in fact, is not only the Italian music festival but, in many aspects, it represents in the best way the changes in society, culture and therefore politics in this country. Rai is its faithful mirror and leaving it out is impossible and perhaps even unjustifiable.
In the general changes that are going through Italy there are also those included in audiovisual consumption, which intervene, in turn, directly in political consumption: the propensity for electoral participation gradually decreases and, in the same way, the consumption of television progressively decreases and it rearticulates the composition of the public in front of the different political and media platforms. Reading Sanremo 2019 in this key means above all taking into account a television world in progressive decline at least in terms of overall audience to the full advantage of other forms of use of the resource time by the public. In Italy, as well as in other countries, the run-up against the competition from streaming, non-linear, video games and social networks appears to be out of breath.
It is necessary to add that the measurement of this last world is far from easy: there is a lack of historical references, the context, the methods of collecting data that escape any analysis. It has been said, regarding Sanremo 2019, that it has been detected a traffic social of over two million contacts, but it is very difficult to quantify and qualify by origin, reference time, platform used. For example, in terms of the composition of the public, Auditel data tells us that the youth segments have grown by around 5% compared to previous years. If these analyzes are possible with Auditel data, everything is much more complex with the Web.
The 69th edition that has just ended, unlike many other previous ones, tells us very interesting things about how, in what terms, the Italians reflect themselves or are represented by the successful songs on the Ariston stage. First of all photography, the state of the art on ratings, on how many viewers were glued in front of the television screen for the five evenings of the festival. Method notes: the data we publish are the result of our elaboration of source Auditel and, for the sole purpose of making sometimes heterogeneous numbers understandable, we have limited the research to a time slot (20.30 -23.59) broad enough to include most of those who directly or indirectly (tuned to other channels) contribute to drawing for large treat the image of the country during Sanremo.
Another notation of method: some argue that the quantitative trend of the festival's ratings could be determined by the ability of the conductors or by the notoriety of the competitors and/or guests. This observation may affect a significant but not decisive public fluctuation. Pippo Baudo is not Claudio Baglioni just as the great international music stars can have different appeals. However, this does not affect the hard core of the Italians who, in any case, consider Sanremo a national event not to be missed, a bit like the national football team when it ranks among the first places in the World Cup (!!!) or when it a new series of Inspector Montalbano is on the air.
As it is easy to see, as far as the audience of viewers is concerned, the numbers prove that those who maintain that ratings hold up and are good for advertisers (they invested 28 million, + 5% compared to the previous year). To support this strength, it is necessary to remember that during the days of the Festival competing programs are not broadcast on the other networks, i.e. there is no so-called counter-programming, leaving all possible fields free. Furthermore, it should be remembered that in any case it is a question of share (the percentage of viewers of a certain channel or television program out of the total television audience present in the same time slot) which, although very high, between 38 and 43%, also means that more than half of the total viewers are tuned to another channel.
Other interesting data can be read on the socio-demographic composition of the Sanremo public such as gender, age groups, level of education, social economic classes and geographical areas of reference. As for gender, women far outnumber men: 6.5 against 4.4 million in this edition (in previous years 6.5 against 3.9 in 2018, 5.9 against 3,6 in 2017 and 5.8 against 3.6 in 2016). Therefore a permanently female audience, which tends to grow compared to the male one.
It is useful to cross-reference these data with the Eurisko synoptic map (despite its age, from 2004, still useful for understanding important social dynamics) which allows us to better identify their identity. Women are defined with the following areas: Women Double Role: these are people of medium-young age (from 18 to 34 years old) and with an averagely high cultural and professional profile. They are attentive to trends and commitment and always in balance between the private world (the family) and the public. In Sanremo 2019 they are represented with an average value compared to the other categories (681 thousand). The highest value (1.055) is found with The Open Ladies: they are women over 54 years of age, with a medium-low income and cultural level, housewives or pensioners, in any case informed and active, mainly present in the large areas of the North. The other categories, The Female Elites, The Sparkling, The Solid and The Dissatisfied they are evenly distributed over average values of around 500 and, taken as a whole, they represent a solid, strong, authoritative audience with considerable depth in the ability to direct languages, behaviors and the possibility of influencing consumption. Their size well represents the "heart" of Sanremo and is essential for any other evaluation.
As far as the male universe is concerned, the main typologies that represent them are: Elite Male, Hard Worker, Precultural Male, Balanced Gentleman, and Bar Elder. The prevailing group is the Equilibato gentleman, around 800, defined in terms of the age group over 54, mainly residing in the North, with a moderate average income (mostly pensions) and a medium-low level of education. What looks at Sanremo could be a right-thinking gentleman, moderate in lifestyle, consumption and participation and, at the same time, able to intervene in a significant way in the public arena. The other most significant category, the Male Elite (439) is very interesting: they are mainly young people and adults (the same ones who this year in Sanremo appreciated the youth offer more than "Villa Arzilla") of aged between 24 and 55, generally already employed, with a good income base, high level of attention and participation, albeit susceptible to the changes underway.
