Italy: Entertainment & Media sector surges past €54bn
September 24, 2026

From Branislav Pekic in Rome



Italy’s Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications (EM&T) market expanded by 2.9 per cent in 2025 to hit €54.9 billion, up from €53.4 billion in 2024.

According to PwC, the broader sector is projected to maintain a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.1 per cent over the next five years, reaching €63.9 billion by 2030.


Italy’s total video market grew 4.1 per cent year-on-year in 2025 to reach €10.7 billion, driven by OTT streaming. OTT subscription revenues are now on track to surpass terrestrial broadcast advertising by 2029 to become the industry’s single largest revenue driver.

Overall OTT sector revenues rose 14.6 per cent in 2025 to €3.2 billion and are projected to reach €4.5 billion by 2030 (a 7.2 per cent CAGR). SVoD generated €2.7 billion of that total in 2025 and is expected to climb to €3.8 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, AVoD has emerged as the fastest-growing video segment, expanding from €411.9 million in 2025 to a projected €610.1 million by 2030 (an 8.2 per cent CAGR).

Conversely, linear pay-TV revenues fell 3.5 per cent in 2025 to drop under €2 billion—a decline from its 2021 peak of €2.3 billion. Total pay-TV households slipped to 4.1 million in 2025, down from 4.2 million in 2024, though industry analysts expect this decline to plateau, forecasting a modest -0.2 per cent CAGR through 2030 to settle at 4.05 million households.

To defend against subscriber churn, market incumbent Sky Italia is shifting away from capital-intensive satellite delivery in favour of IPTV. Through its Sky Stream hardware – which recently saw its setup fee reduced from €99 to €19 – Sky is repositioning itself as a centralised content aggregator, bundling its own channels alongside third-party OTT applications, fixed broadband and mobile packages.

Despite rapid consumer migration toward streaming, traditional broadcast TV retains a firm grip on commercial advertising. Linear broadcasters accounted for 90 per cent of all video ad spend in 2025 and are forecast to maintain an 86 per cent share by 2030, with traditional ad revenues growing at a 0.8 per cent CAGR to reach €3.8 billion.