TBI Tech & Analysis: How Netflix moved into first place in Italy

Summer Job

Omdia’s Rob Moyser explores how, despite a global dip in subscribers last year, heavy originals investment in 2022 saw Netflix overtake Sky Italia to become the predominant service in Italy for the first time

The year 2022 was marked by both change and transformation for Netflix. At the 
start of year, the streamer lost subscribers for the first time in its history, 
experiencing a dip in its subscriber bases in many of its major markets, while in the 
latter part of the year, it added AVOD to its platform in an attempt to regenerate the
 revenue lost from these subscriber declines.

In Italy, Netflix saw a small decline in customers during the second quarter of the 
year, losing 36,000 subscibers (0.7%), but bounced back with more substantial
 growth in the preceding quarters: +112,000 (2.3%) in 3Q, and +471,000 (9.5%) in 4Q.

Netflix, therefore, grew by more than half a million customers (12.1%) by the end of 
the year, reaching 5.4 million customers in total, putting Netflix above Sky Italia (exclusive
 of NOW) for the first time.

Click to expand

Italian originals

Netflix continued to double down on its investments in Italy in 2022, seeing it as a
 critical factor in driving growth and halting subscriber declines—a commitment
 made more concrete with the launch of its new office in Rome in May 2022, joining
 its existing European bases in countries such as the UK, Spain, and France.

Netflix released 24 new local Italian Originals in 2022, adding two more titles than 
the previous year. Much like the previous two years, the bulk of these originals are 
roughly split between TV series and films, with content primarily geared toward 
romantic comedies and crime dramas.

Amazon Prime Video, likewise, has a similar preference for comedy content, but less focus on crime dramas. Netflix also expanded its range of content even further in 2022, releasing its first reality TV show, Summer Job, a move that stems from the company’s new “local plus variety” strategy, which sees it increasing its unscripted output across Europe and other non-US territories with local stories and formats.

This excerpt was taken from Omdia’s ‘Italy: Trends in Pay TV & Online Video Report – 2023’ by Rob Moyser, senior analyst, TV & online video, which is available to read in full here.