The TV set stays indispensable for the majority of Germans.
Five out of six TV users (86%) say that they “absolutely can’t” go without their TV set. TV sets are considered to be much more important than other home electronics devices such as CD, MP3 and DVD players (see chart).
These are the results of a survey conducted by research institute Aris among 1,004 people of at least 14 years of age on behalf of industry association BITKOM.
“The trend towards streaming on mobile devices like smartphones and tablet computers complements the TV set, but doesn’t replace it,” BITKOM’s managing director Bernhard Rohleder said in Berlin.
There is not much difference between age groups: Even 87% of TV users between 14 and 29 years of age say that they consider their TV set to be indispensable.
There are plenty of different ways to use TV sets nowadays besides the consumption of linear television, DVDs or Blu-ray discs. For example, photo and video files from the computer can be viewed on the TV screen.
According to research by IHS Technology, around 29 million TV sets are connected to the internet in Germany enabling direct streaming of TV programmes and videos from the web. “The TV set increasingly turns into a general output device for all kinds of sounds and images,” said Rohleder.
