Mediaset claims ratings victory

Italian broadcaster Mediaset has claimed a strong result in Italy’s audience ratings battle for the first part of the year, both in free and pay channels.

According to Mediaset, the latest figures from Auditel showed that its channels had a 40.6% audience share among the 15-64 age range in prime time and 40.1% over 24 hours, compared with comparable figures of 38.5% and 36.2% for public broadcaster Rai.

Canale 5 was Italy’s most-viewed channel among its target audience with a 20.2% share in prime time and 19.5% over 24 hours, compared with 15.4% and 15.2% for Rai 1.

Mediaset also claimed good results for its free-to-air thematic channels – particularly La5 (with a 2.1% share among women aged 15-44) and kids channel Boing (with a 6.9% share in the 4-14 age range).

Mediaset also claimed a strong result for its Premium Calcio pay TV football channel, which it said was the most-viewed pay TV channel over 24-hours, with a 0.6% share.