Mediaset audience share slips following Sky withdrawal

Italian broadcaster Mediaset’s audience share has slipped by a reported 1.56% since its channels were removed from the Sky platform after the pair failed to strike a deal acceptable to both parties.

Mediaset’s flagship network Italia 1 suffered the most from removal, dropping from 5.95% on its last week on Sky to 5.28%.

Mediaset immediately issued a statement saying that the overall audience for its channels in primetime remained unchanged year-on-year at 26.2% and that, in Sky households, its share was 15.1%, while the channels that replaced it on the EPG, – SkyUno, Fox and Rai4 – collectively accounted for only 3.2%.

Sky said that its own channels had an average share of 6%, or 5.9% in primetime. This compares with a share of 5% between September 15-18.

Public broadcaster Rai, one of the principal beneficiaries of Mediaset’s departure in terms of visibility on the Sky EPG, saw its channels’ audience share rise by a more modest 0.25%. Other third-party channels saw their share of the audience rise collectively by about 1.51%.