The start of the 2026/2027 Serie A season showed a sharp decline in television ratings compared to the previous year. Although the League recorded positive signs in the first rounds of August, consolidated data from Auditel and Audicom for the first six matchdays indicate a more marked decline, with Serie A broadcast on DAZN losing over one million viewers compared to the same period a year ago.
The new championship, which started with an average of 5.226 million viewers, fell by 10.2% compared to the sixth day of last year, when the figure was 5.819 million. In practice, almost 600,000 fans remained off the couch. The big matches, however, continued to withstand the impact: the Cagliari-Juventus match reached 1.141 million spectators and the new Como, in a match against Roma, attracted 900,820 users. The averages of the mid-range teams, however, have suffered a real collapse.
The “Juventus effect” phenomenon remains dominant. The Juventus team, which closed the 2025/2026 season with 52.6 million total spectators and an average of 1.38 million per match, continues to be the driving force of the television market. On the contrary, Inter, although still among the most followed clubs, saw its average fall to 876,062 spectators compared to 953,875 the previous year. Milan, on the other hand, recorded a slight improvement, with 917,161 average spectators compared to 893,561 in the last tournament. The other fourteen teams, excluding the three sisters and Roma, struggle to exceed 250,000 spectators, with examples such as Torino-Udinese (245,000) and Lecce-Bologna (120,000).
The decline manifests itself asymmetrically between transmission platforms. DAZN, which holds the exclusivity of 7 out of 10 games per round, suffers the greatest impact of fragmentation, reducing its previous +10.5% overall growth. Sky Sport, on the contrary, manages to contain the damage thanks to the stability of its co-exclusive package (3 matches per day) and its strong time positioning, especially for Saturday evening matches, which keep the average audience above 400,000 viewers for the first-tier teams. Furthermore, the European nights of the Champions League and Europa League, with the new single group format, compensate for the warmer Sundays of the national Serie A.
Despite the decline, the sum of total audiences on DAZN and Sky Sport in the first six days recorded a slight increase of +1.97% compared to the same period last year. However, the analysis of the individual channels highlights a clear divide between streaming the entire package and holding the matches free-to-air or via satellite. The future of Serie A broadcasting therefore remains in the balance, with the need to reconsider the costs of season tickets, piracy and the real attractiveness of hot football.