Italy's Content Spending Fell 7.4% in 2025 as Streaming Grew

Italy spent less on making films, TV and streaming shows in 2025. Investment in content production dropped 7.4% from the year before, to EUR 2 billion (about $2.24 billion), according to a report from Variety.

The figures came from APA, the Italian TV producers' association, which released its report on Wednesday at MIA, the film and TV market held in Rome. Buyers and sellers gather there to trade shows before the bigger autumn deal-making season.

The report links the fall to two things. The first is uncertainty over government support through domestic tax credits, which are rebates producers can claim on what they spend at home. The second is the continuing move from traditional TV channels, known as linear TV, toward streaming services. Streaming now accounts for 43% of the Italian TV market, up from 21% in 2020, the report says.

The scripted segment, which covers fictional drama and comedy, saw the largest decline of any part of the sector. Even so, the number of Italian scripted original titles grew 9% to 101 shows in 2025. Most of that growth came from 74 smaller domestic series made for linear networks. Italian originals made for streamers stayed at 27 titles.

Italy's international production rebates were not affected by the dispute over changes to domestic tax credits. Those rebates are the incentives that draw foreign productions to film in Italy. Foreign productions have been part of the country's recent story. Back in 2024, Italian film and TV organisations warned that production was grinding to a halt because of uncertainty over state funding and tax credits, as Deadline reported at the time.

Despite the lower spending, Italian producers and broadcasters made more than 17,000 hours of original first-run content in 2025. First-run means new programming, shown for the first time. Independent production companies, which are not owned by a broadcaster or streamer, made 59% of those titles.

A smaller budget pool means fewer big productions can be funded in a given year, and every project competes for the same public support.

The shift to streaming is also changing who commissions the work. Streamers ordered only 27 Italian originals, while domestic linear networks drove the rise in scripted titles. The picture for 2026 will become clearer as the next year's figures are counted.