A significant percentage of Czech viewers are still shunning pay-TV and choosing instead to watch only terrestrial services.
According to Atmedia, 44% of those aged 15-69 fall into this category, with more than a third arguing that pay-TV is too expensive.
Pavel Müller, head of research & marketing at Atmedia, says that “a total of 67% of viewers who do not pay for the reception of TV stations claim that they are satisfied with the offer of TV stations that broadcast in terrestrial digital broadcasting and that they can therefore watch for free”, the most frequently mentioned reason for not using the services of pay-TV operators.
At the same time, however, he points out that fewer non-paying viewers indicated this reason than two years ago, when almost three quarters of them cited it.
As two years ago, the second most frequently cited reason is reluctance to pay for television reception. However, while in 2020 this argument was made by 67% of viewers who do not have pay-TV, now it is 47%.
“This significant drop may indicate a certain change in the thinking of non-paying viewers about whether or not to pay for TV content,” contined Müller. However, as he added, the question is how the high rate of inflation will affect the willingness to pay for television content in the coming months.
Also, the third most frequently cited reason is related to the willingness to pay to watch TV – 36% of viewers who only watch free-to-air TV channels say that pay-TV is expensive.
Other reasons mentioned then include the reluctance to deal with a change in television reception or the claim that setting up satellite, cable or IPTV is too demanding.
