Italians turn to time-shifted viewing

Almost a third of Italians used time-shifted viewing last year, while 59% of pay TV operator Sky Italia’s subscribers used non-linear viewing, according to a study by the Politecnico di Milano and Studio Frasi on the evolution of the Italian TV market.

According to the study, 31% of Italians – about 17.8 million people – used time shifted-viewing in 2012, while 59% per cent of Sky Italia’s subscribers – about 7.4 million people –used non-linear viewing.

The study found about 1.7 million daily non-linear viewing contacts a day on average in 2012, with an average audience of 68,000 using services for an average of 57 minutes per day.

Non-linear viewing peaked during the week ending June 7, when the Euro 2012 match between Italy and Russia was shown on Rai, with a large number of people watching the match live and using catch-up services to view other programmes.