05/10/2011

10 milioni Italians (21% of the population aged 15 and over) influence the entire film market, with an attendance which goes from 5 to 14 times a year (87 million tickets out of 120 sold in 2010).

This relatively small and very concentrated demand will register a total of -4% tickets by the end of the year, but at the same time it professes to be very interested in the consumption of films via Video On Demand and in smartphone and tablet contents.

The features of the new audience are delineated in a research paper on audience typologies for films in cinemas and in the home carried out by Digital Monitor for Anica and edited by E-res (download PDF - in Italian).

Of the 25 million people who never visited the cinema in 2010, about 14 million last stepped foot in one as many as five years ago. The main reasons according to Digital Monitor’s analysis: films are watched at home (more for free than at a cost); problems of moving/distance; other commitments; high costs (tickets, parking).

The research found that about a third of the Italian population (16 million) watches at least one film a day on the main networks. Over 6 million watch at least one film a day on the free terrestrial digital channels, about 4 on pay Sky, about 1,2 on pay tv Premium.

16% of all those interviewed have seen films or TV series downloaded from the Internet(legally or illegally). A quarter of these belong to those who do not go to the cinema, a fifth (around 200 thousand people who do not go to the cinema) watches downloaded films on a daily basis.

Finally the analysis on internet trends is also of interest. If for the wider public the main sources of information about films are word-of-mouth and TV, the more frequent consumers follow specialised websites while newspapers are in last place.

(Translated from Italian)