Good news for Italy’s streaming and web market in 2026. According to the Media & Entertainment report by Mediobanca’s Research Area, revenues in the audiovisual market grew between 4 and 5%, compared to the 2-3% recorded in 2025. These positive results were driven by streaming, digital advertising, and major sporting events.
Looking at the data, advertising investments rose by 0.5% in the first six months of 2026. Digital grew by 3.4%, while TV lost 2.1%. Radio was the best-performing medium, with revenue up 3.7%. The sharpest decline, however, was in radio and TV licence fee collection, which dropped by 5.6%. There is a clear and growing interest from audiences in digital platforms, with the internet increasingly taking on forms similar to television. This has also led advertisers to pay closer attention, with growing interest in investing in this medium.
Streaming has now become the industry’s main source of profit, particularly when it comes to web subscriptions, which reached as much as €2.4 billion (a quarter of the €9.6 billion total), second only to advertising but outperforming satellite and traditional pay TV.
The winning formula for platforms has become ad-supported subscription tiers, AVOD offerings, and FAST channels. Netflix confirms this trend, with 60% of new subscriptions tied to its ad-supported plan. Competition is therefore growing to offer the best package, through price negotiations and bundles, while at the same time companies are working to curb account sharing and push upselling. As a result, streaming operators and aggregators such as Prime Video, SkyQ, Timvision, and Dazn are gaining more and more ground.
It’s a difficult period, however, for Italy’s major broadcasters (Rai, Sky, and Mediaset), whose share of revenues has been declining since 2022: from an initial 68%, it dropped to 63% in 2024, with estimates pointing to a further decline in 2025. Rai remains ahead of Sky and Mediaset, but compared to other European public broadcasters, its revenues remain far lower: €2.8 billion, versus €9.8 billion in Germany, €7.9 billion in the UK, and €4.4 billion in France.
In conclusion, streaming is the main growth driver of the video-on-demand sector, with subscription revenues accounting for 22.2% of the total market. Netflix once again confirms itself as the global leader, with over 300 million subscribers and 27.7% of the SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) market; Amazon Prime Video follows with over 200 million users, and Disney, through Disney+ and Hulu, reaches 196 million subscribers.
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