Italy: "Audiences measured by DAZN/Nielsen significantly higher than those of Auditel" (AGCOM)

"An initial analysis of the overall data relating to the Auditel and DAZN/Nielsen data shows that the overall audience measured by DAZN/Nielsen is significantly higher than that measured by Auditel. In fact, the overall percentage difference in audience between the two surveys is more than 50% for the first half of the Serie A football championship (2021-22), whereas, as indicated at the hearing, Auditel's technical commission has indicated that the acceptable difference between the data should not exceed 10%," said AGCOM, the regulatory and competition authority for the communication industries in Italy, in a statement published on 31/01/2022.

AGCOM had announced, on 16/09/2021, the opening of an investigation into the methodology for calculating the audiences of Serie A TIM matches reported by the OTT platform DAZN and provided by the American institute Nielsen, in comparison with those of the Italian audience measurement institute Auditel, the historical reference institute for TV audiences in Italy.

"For the 2021-22 Lega Serie A sporting season, the reference audience data for…