Despite the Corona crisis, 2.7 million TV sets were sold in Germany between January and May 2020, slightly more than in the first five months of the previous year (2.65 million), according to GfK Retail & Technology.
The proportion of smart TV sets that enable the use of apps or catch-up services via HbbTV and the internet continued to rise and amounted to 85%. That’s more than in the period from January to May 2020 (79%).
In total, almost 40 million smart TVs have been sold in Germany since 2012. Of these, over 90% support the HbbTV standard and thus the use of interactive services via the red button on the remote control.
The trend towards larger screens continues: 58% of the smart TVs sold from January to May 2020 have a diagonal screen size of 50 inches or larger (2019: 53%).
“The stable overall market and the high market penetration of smart TVs offers the media industry a very good basis for new and innovative non-linear services,” said Andre Prahl, chairman of German industry association Deutsche TV-Plattform. “10 years after the adoption of the specification, we are particularly pleased about the success of the HbbTV standard, whose introduction has been accompanied by Deutsche TV-Plattform from the very beginning.”