Cable TV was yesterday: Most Swiss use TV via the Internet
In 2021, the Internet became the most-used TV reception channel for the Swiss for the first time - overtaking the classic reception channel via cable. With the general increase in TV use in the Corona era, the demand for live TV via the Internet also grew. In the process, TV offerings are increasingly being watched on smart TV.
The report is based on a survey conducted by Kantar on behalf of Zattoo Europa AG this year among 875 Internet users between the ages of 16 and 69 in Switzerland.
In 2021, 56 percent of all Swiss Internet users will already receive their television via the Internet. This means that the Internet as a TV reception channel will increase by a further 7 percentage points compared to the previous year. For the first time, the Internet overtakes traditional cable reception, which at 51 percent remains at the previous year's level. Television reception via satellite is used by 9 percent of respondents, and DVB-T by a further 5 percent. Since some households use more than one reception channel for television, multiple answers were possible for this question.
Use of TV streaming services continues to grow strongly
While 32 percent of Swiss TV viewers used TV streaming services, such as live TV via the Internet, video-on-demand or YouTube, for more than half of their TV time in 2020, this figure will rise to 41 percent in 2021. A further 39 percent use TV streaming services for up to half of their TV time.
The proportion of those who do not use any TV streaming services at all is also continuing to fall sharply: the figure is now just 20 percent, down from 30 percent in the previous year. Already 57 percent of all Swiss Internet users can imagine using TV services exclusively via the Internet in the future. 7 percent already do so.
Live TV usage picks up significantly during Corona crisis
The use of live TV via the Internet is rising significantly again in 2021. Whereas in the previous year there was a decline from 47 percent in 2019 to just 34 percent in 2020, this year the trend is clearly pointing upwards again with a share of 40 percent due to the Corona crisis.
The use of media libraries (24 percent) and YouTube (66 percent) is also increasing. Only the use of video-on-demand services (23 percent) is declining slightly this year, by two percentage points.
However, looking at the individual video-on-demand providers, Netflix has made significant gains this year. 68 percent of video-on-demand users, 12 percentage points more than in 2020, watched the US company's movie and series offerings. At 20 percent, one in five video-on-demand users already watches the newly launched Disney+ service. In terms of media libraries, the ZDF Mediathek in particular recorded a significant increase of 10 percentage points to 44 percent among media library users. A further 51 percent prefer to watch the SRF Mediathek program. The ARD Mediathek also continues to grow and is watched by 38 percent of the users surveyed.
TV streaming most preferred on the smart TV
Smart TVs are also on a growth course in times of Corona and will increase by a further 6 percentage points in 2021. Already 45 percent of all TV streaming users watch their TV program on a smart TV. Laptops and PCs are also used by 45 percent, but are losing 5 percentage points compared to the previous year. Mobile use is also on the rise again, after a sharp decline in the previous year. This could be due to parallel use of multiple devices in times of partial lockdown. For example, tablet usage in 2021 is 28 percent and smartphone usage is 44 percent. Streaming devices (11 percent) and game consoles (8 percent), on the other hand, remain at the previous year's level.
The entire TV Streaming Report 2021 for Switzerland is available at here download.
