The Italian audiovisual industry is growing and getting ready to enter into a new phase. According to the sixth APA (Associazione Produttori Audiovisivi) Report on national audiovisual production, presented yesterday in Rome within the tenth edition of the MIA-International Audiovisual Market, the value of the audiovisual world in 2023 almost doubled compared to 2017, exceeding 2 billion and reaching a constant annual growth rate of 11.6%.

Production volumes for the three primary target channels are growing compared to 2022: productions aimed at movie theatres grew by 21%, those for VoD platforms by 16%, and for TV by 8%. Revenue is also increasing: totalling over 12 billion euros in 2023, income over the past year rose by 20% compared to the previous year. TV remains the strongest medium with 8.2 billion in takings (71% of the total market), while online platforms (AVoD and Pay VoD) took 2.8 billion (24% of the total market). Cinema accounts for the remaining share, revealing a solid recovery since the pandemic years, thanks to promotional summer campaigns. Employment within the sector is also on the rise, with 120,000 employees and growth of 3.5% over the past year.

There’s also been a considerable increase in the number of productions aimed at young audiences, with a 70% rise in hours of Fiction Kids & Early Teens content noted in 2023. Series remain the dominant format as things stand, while the period, biopic and romance categories are among the new genres piquing the interest of producers and audiences. Netflix and Paramount+ are the OTT platforms demonstrating the most significant growth in terms of numbers of titles and hours of content produced.

That said, producers are set to face a considerable challenge over the coming year. “As part of a general consolidation of the market, favoured by the growing demand for content and by tax credit”, explained APA (and Cinecittà) president Chiara Sbarigia as she presented the data, “the sector is now entering into a new phase geared towards a greater selection of projects on the basis of the quality of the product and its potential for circulation beyond national borders”.

The product of an observatory which the APA initiated in 2017, this year the report will also include a comparative analysis with four other European countries which are considered to be major producers: France, Spain, Germany and the UK. As for production incentives, it transpires that even though, in Italy, a series of public subsidies and other aid is indeed available, greater funds are available in Spain on a national level and in Germany on a regional level, while in 2022 the UK supported more productions and invested larger sums than the other comparison countries. Overall, in 2022 Italian tax credit supported approximately 40% (572) of the number of projects backed by UK tax credit (1,405) and approximately half of the projects backed by French tax credit (1,061). Italy spent less than half of the UK’s total spending in tax credits on films and audiovisual works in 2022, equating to 768 million Italian euros versus 1.631 million euros spent by the UK.

Last but not least, major concerns in Italy include the complexity of the administrative process to obtain aid and, most importantly, the opening dates of windows for submitting applications for aid, which are hardly ever set in stone. Producers are subsequent obliged to find pre-financing from different sources, often with great difficulty in terms of the guarantees required and with significant financial costs, which come in addition to already-high production costs.

For more information on the sixth APA Report on national audiovisual production, click here.