More than one third (37%) of cable customers in Germany still solely watch analogue television, resembling 6.2 million households, according to the digitalisation report 2014 released by the German media authorities.
In particular older citizens and low-income households are among the analogue TV users. 11.2 million of the 17.9 million cable households now use digital TV, corresponding with a share of 63% (2013: 56%). More than 3 million cable customers have signed up for the HD versions of the commercial free-to-air channels which are offered for an additional monthly subscription fee.
In total, the digital TV share among the German TV households now amounts to 84% (2013: 81%). All of the analogue households are cable subscribers as that’s the last infrastructure still offering analogue television.
The reach of the different distribution infrastructures remains almost unchanged. Each holding a share of slightly over 46% of the TV households, cable and satellite remain in the top positions. DTT slightly dropped from 11% to 10% of the TV households. In total, 3.9 million households receive DTT of which 2 million use DTT as their sole TV reception method.
DTT is particularly popular in regions in which both public and commercial TV channels are offered with the reach climbing to 17% of the TV households in these areas. If DTT reception via PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets and TV receivers in cars is included, the reach rises to 26%.
IPTV remains unchanged at 5% of the TV households, corresponding with 1.9 million households.
45% of the German population now watches video content through the internet. 22% do this using a connected TV set hooked up to the internet (Smart TV). 23% of the TV households have an internet-capable TV set, an increase by 46% compared with last year.
15% of the households have connected their TV set directly or indirectly – for example through a set-top-box or a games console – to the internet, corresponding with 5.7 million households. Video consumption through the internet is on the rise mainly on Smart TV sets (+61%) and on tablets (+88%).
Most video-on-demand (VOD) consumers (58%) use the public and commercial broadcasters’ catch-up TV portals (Mediatheken) followed by video portals (25%) and online video stores (21%) such as maxdome, Watchever and Amazon Instant Video.
43% of the TV viewers use a second screen in parallel to TV consumption, for example a smartphone, laptop or tablet. E-Mail and instant messaging (72%) are most used during TV consumption, followed by current news and information (59%) and social networks (51%). Only 27% of the second screen users access content accompanying the TV programme they are currently watching.
For many users, the second screen is in fact already the first screen. Asked which screen they devote most of their attention to during parallel usage, 38% say it’s their smartphone, tablet or laptop. 35% still mainly follow the happenings on the TV screen.
For the digitalisation report 2014, market research company TNS Infratest interviewed more than 6,000 people representing the characteristics of the German population. The study can be downloaded in both German and English-language free of charge in PDF format on the media authorities’ website.
