Listen to Tg, pandemic beats politics

   Pandemic beats politics in the attention of the TV public: the ratings of the evening news are confirmed on the rise compared to a year ago, driven by the desire to stay informed on the progress of infections and the effects of the health emergency, but slow down with the beginning of the government crisis. This is the photograph taken by the Observatory of the Phrases Studio with the analysis of the Auditel data of the newscasts between 13 January and 6 February 2021: these are the days that go from the exit of Italia Viva from the government to the end of the first round of consultations of the prime minister in charge Draghi. In between there are the resignation of Conte, the exploratory assignment entrusted by the head of state Mattarella to the president of the Fico Chamber, the return to the Quirinale di Fico with the negative result, the assignment to Draghi, the first round of consultations. In the days of the crisis, the evening news - notes Studio Frasi - lose on average 5% of viewers compared to the first twelve days of January, with the sole exception of TgLa7 whose viewers grow by 212 thousand units (+ 16%). Considering the whole of the news, all age segments show more or less negative values. Compared to the first 12 days of January, between 2 and 8 February the audience listened to by young people between 15 and 24 years old fell by 11.3%, by 25-54 year olds the drop was 9.5%, by over 55 2.6%. The only region to see both attention and presence grow in front of the evening news is Umbria, which is experiencing a very difficult phase on the virus front. On social media, the appeal of news is rather low. The analysis by Studio Frasi of Talkwalker data reveals that from 1 January to 7 February the news programs generated just 29,396 interactions (compared to 178.5 million dedicated to what was broadcast on TV, dominated by Juventus matches). The news program with the highest number of interactions is Tg2, followed by Tg3 and Tg1, in fourth position TgLa7. A little more numerous are the video fragments relating to the news posted on social networks: 136,042. The discourse changes if we compare the listening to the evening news with the same period of 2020: between 13 January and 8 February 2021 all the evening news have increased compared to the same days last year, in particular the edition of the TgR (+767.113 spectators), confirming the focus on the pandemic in the individual territories. The set of Rai regional news programs grew more than the others, also in percentage (+ 29.7%). The ranking remains unchanged: at the top is Tg1, the only one to exceed 6 million (on average 6 million 151 thousand spectators), followed in order by Tg5 (4 million 999 thousand), TgR (3 million 353 thousand ), Tg3 (2 million 606 thousand), Tg2 (1 million 856 thousand), TgLa7 (1 million 537 thousand) and Studio Aperto (931 thousand), closes Tg4 (743 thousand).