Disney+ Italy

Contributed by Ester Corvi

May 2021

Market

Italy has 25.7 million households and a population of 60.3 million[1]. Between 2016 and 2019, the share of Italian households with connected TV increased significantly, from 14.4 percent to 29.1 percent[2]. Thanks to such technological shifts and changing viewing habits, the Italian SVOD market has grown significantly over the last five years. Netflix has played a key role since its local launch in October 2015.

The SVOD market in Italy includes both domestic and foreign services. Italian pay-TV operators and free-to-air TV operators have developed various non-linear offerings in the last decade. Initially, these were conceived by operators as a complementary service that would exist alongside, but not cannibalise, their linear pay-TV offering. Sky On Demand, launched in 2009, and Premium On-Demand by Mediaset (later rebranded Mediaset Premium) both allowed time-shifted consumption of linear programming. Sky Go and Premium Play launched in 2011, allowing outdoor and mobile viewing. Both companies also offer stand-alone SVOD services: Mediaset’s Infinity (launched in 2013) and Sky Italia’s Now TV (launched 2014). In August 2020, Sky launched its own broadband service into the Italian market, branded Sky Wi-Fi. Regarding premium sports content, DAZN online video sports service was launched in Italy in 2018and in March 2021 it grabbed broadcast rights for Serie A matches in the 2021-2024 period.

In recent years, OTT consumption has also been driven by the arrival of foreign streaming players (Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Discovery Plus, Mubi and Disney+). In 2020 there was also a spike in consumption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with more direct-to-consumer adoption and usage among late adopters of all ages, especially baby boomers. According to PWC[3], in Italy OTT video revenue increased from US$131mn in 2015 to US$870mn in 2020, at a compound annual growth rate of 46 percent. Estimates of OTT subscriptions in Italy suggest it is ranked fifth in Europe, behind the UK, Germany, France and Spain. SVOD revenues in Italy have grown from US$67mn in 2015 to US$722mn in 2020, with SVOD’s share of total OTT revenue rose from 51 percent to 83 percent in the same period. Overall, Italy is now dominated by a diverse group of online video platforms offering various content across TV, movie and sports at more flexible terms and at a far lower price than pay-TV

Within this wider OTT and SVOD landscape, Disney+ plays a distinctive role. The service launched in Italy on 24 March 2020, as part of its seven-country Western European launch. On 15 September 2020, Disney+ was also rolled out in Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Benelux and Luxemburg. These staged European debuts represented the opening salvo in a multifront campaign to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. From launch, the Mouse House’s streaming service had more than 350 series and 500 movies, including most of the famous Disney catalogue of animated and kid-focused films. In February 2021 Disney + introduced its Star brand  in Italy, along with the other European markets, Canada and some Asia-Pacific market, to diversify the catalogue genre, bringing more crime and thriller, comedy and drama content. 

Disney +catalogue

The Italian Disney+ catalogue has a significant focus on Children & Family genre and famous IP. It offers a growing, but limited amount of original content. The small proportion reflects both Disney+’s relatively recent launch and production shutdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, Disney + sells nostalgia, drawing adults to the service, re-watching shows from their youth, and introducing their kids to that content. The vast majority of series fall into the Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar brands. According to Parrot Analytics[1] last year The Mandalorian (Disney), was the most in-demand  digital original series in Italy, followed by La casa de papel  (Netflix)  and Lucifer (Netflix). With The Mandalorian, Disney has actively created crossover opportunities with other series in the Star Wars universe.  The Star Wars spin-off series maintained an atypically high level of engagement throughout the year because the first season aired weekly in Spring 2020 and the second season arrived later in the year. The attention now is focused on the new original Star series designed specifically for Italian markets, albeit with the ambition of international interest: the fourth season of Boris (six half-hour episodes coming in autumn 2021) and the series  Le Fate Ignoranti curated by director Ferzan Ozpetek. An international co-production will instead be The Good Mothers centred on the women of the Ndrangheta.  A year after its Italian launch, consumer and press attention for Disney +is still very high and growing following announcement of the local series.

Press reaction

The launch of Disney+ in Italy in March 2020 was fully covered by media with detailed explanations of its features and content, pointing out the “family & kids” offer, the competitive price and the differentiation from Netflix and other SVOD players. In the following months, the House of Mouse platform enjoyed a continuous presence in Italian-language web pages, newspapers, and media, with detailed accounts of the main features of its catalogue. Based on the evidence of  Disney+ growth in Italy, some journalists wondered: “Will Disney + be Netflix's killer?” highlighting the strength of the brand. The focus was on its extensive library and the successful series The Mandalorian, which was acclaimed as high-quality television.

Service pricing

In Italy, Disney + costs 8,99 euro monthly (89,90 euro a year), and it's  more expensive than Netflix (7,99 monthly for the basic plan) and Amazon Prime Video (3,99 euro monthly). At the time of the launch in March 2020, Disney + was cheaper (6,99 euro monthly) than Netflix using the price as a competitive lever to establish itself on the market. In February 2021 Disney+ increased the monthly subscription from 6,99 to 8,99 euro when it introduced content to the service under its Star brand.

Subscriber estimates

In Italy Disney+ has a customer base of 979 thousand  in Q4 2020, according to Ampere Analysis, in a market where the leading player is Netflix (3787.6 thousand), followed by Amazon Prime Video (2304 thousand), TIM Vision (2063.3 thousand), DAZN (1607.5 thousand) and Mediaset Infinity (1287 thousand). Disney + has gained a relevant share in Italian SVOD market from its launch in March 2020, exceeding expectations thanks to its well-known brands (Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar).

Local Disney Office

In Italy, Disney has a local office in Milan. The PR agency Opinion Leader, based in Milan, acts as a press office and PR house.

Notes

[1] Istat

[2] Statista

[3] PWC, Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2020–2024, 2021

Suggested reading

Amanda D. Lotz, We now disrupt this broadcast, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2018.

Deloitte, Digital media trends survey, 14th edition.

Ester Corvi, Streaming Revolution, Flaccovioeditore, Palermo, 2020.

European Audiovisual Observatory, Artificial intelligence in the audiovisual sector, Bruxelles , 2020.

European Audiovisual Observatory, European Audiovisual Yearbook, Bruxelles, 2020

European Audiovisual Observator, Trends in the VOD market in EU28, Bruxelles, January 2021.

Jonathan Gray e Amanda D. Lotz,Television Studies, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2018

Amanda D. Lotz, Post Network, Edizioni Minimum Fax, Roma, 2017.

Luca Barra and Massimo Scaglioni,Convergenzeparallele. I broadcaster tralineare e non lineare, in Valentina Re (ed.), Streaming Media. Circolazione, distribuzione, accesso, Milan-Udine: Mimesis, 2017

Parrot Analytics, The Global Television Demand Report, 2020

Polimi, Osservatorio Internet Media, giugno 2020

PWC, Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2020-2024, 2020 

Valentina Re (ed.), Streaming Media. Circolazione, distribuzione, accesso. Milan-Udine: Mimesis, 2017.