Spend on Italian TV and film productions shot upwards by 28% to €1.8B ($1.9B) last year, the latest report into the country’s sector revealed today.
Closing the MIA Market, the likes of Audiovisual Producers Association (APA)/Cinecittà President Chiara Sbarigia, Netflix Italy boss Tinny Andreatta and Ministry of Culture Undersecretary Lucia Borgonzoni presented the APA research, which took in Italian TV and film investment in the 2022 calendar year and is the fifth of its kind.
The report showed that the total value of investments in original Italian productions across genre was €1.8B, up from around €1.4B, with more than half of this figure made up by spend on linear platforms such as national pubcaster Rai.
Sbarigia pointed out that the “steady growth” of online spend is now worth almost a third of overall TV spend, while there has been “significant boost in documentaries and animation, mainly in the VoD segment” – a key talking point at the MIA TV and film confab this week.
The report said “scripted series prevailed” last year, with drama increasing by more titles and hours, while comedy declined slightly. Among sub-genres, there was a boom in teen and coming of age content.
Notably, documentaries saw a big boost in titles available on OTT platforms but linear titles declined slightly.
There was also a “recovery” in Italian entertainment TV, according to the data, an increase of 7% in hours. Adaptations from international formats grew both in terms of titles (+11%) and in terms of hours (+39%), “thanks in particular to the talent, reality, dating and factual genres,” the report added.
The report also painted a positive picture of employment in the Italian sector, with a near 5% boost in those working in “audiovisual activities” to 117,000.
Italian execs have been out in force at MIA this week. Speaking on a panel of Netflix execs yesterday, Andreatta said she wants to overcome national stereotypes rooted in the 1960s and pointed to shows with a modern flavor such as Matilda De Angelis-starrer The Law According to Lidia Poët and Supersex about Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi. Earlier in the week, Netflix’s Baby EP Nicola De Angelis said Italian commissioners are becoming more “open minded” to diverse stories. The likes of Paramount’s Nicole Clemens, Miramax’s Marc Helwig and Anonymous Content duo David Levine and David Davoli addressed MIA through the week.