MEDIENWOCHE – BERLIN. The proportion of German digital households has now risen to 40% as compared with 31.6% a year ago, according to Dr Oliver Ecke of research institute TNS Infratest, speaking during the Digital TV 2007 session at the Medienwoche. However, the development on the various platforms is taking place at varying speeds.
DTT is progressing very fast, with 86% of all households that depend on terrestrial reception having converted to digital. At the same time, the share of terrestrial homes has climbed from 9.2 % to 11.5 %. There is a big difference between areas that have both commercial and public channels and those with just the public broadcasters. The regions with the full offer reach between 9% and 16% of the local population.
DTH is still digital market leader, with 60% of all digital homes being satellite. Of all DTH homes, 57% are digital and the remainder still analogue. Some 40% of all digital satellite homes have free-to-air (FTA) receivers. Cable is lagging behind, with just 16.2% of all connections being digital.
“This means we will not reach our target of analogue cable switch-off in 2010,” said Dr Hans Hege, director of the Berlin media authority.
