TV Streaming Report 2023 Switzerland

Zurich, 28th March 2023 – More and more Swiss people are using the Internet for their TV reception. This trend will continue in 2023. Live TV usage is ahead of the use of video-on-demand offerings, and looking at the current economic situation shows that worrying about high inflation rates has had less impact on streaming subscriptions than expected. This is the conclusion of the 2023 TV Streaming Report for Switzerland. The report is based on a survey conducted annually by Kantar on behalf of Zattoo since 2015. This year, 810 Swiss Internet users between the ages of 16 and 69 were surveyed. 

TV reception over the Internet continues to grow, cable loses significantly

More and more people are using the Internet as a means of receiving their television programmes. This trend will continue in 2023. Among Swiss internet users, 67% are already doing so. Internet means both IPTV offers and TV streaming apps. That is 6 percentage points more than in the previous year. Especially in German-speaking Switzerland, the Internet is gaining 10 percentage points. 69% already use this form of TV reception. This means that for the third year in a row, the Internet is leaving cable television behind and remains the most widely used TV reception channel among Swiss Internet users. This year, cable TV reception is just 35%, a further 5 percentage points down on the previous year. 

Live TV still more popular than video-on-demand

42% of respondents watch live television on the Internet. This means that in 2023, after solid growth during the coronavirus pandemic, it will remain at the previous year's level for the first time. Nevertheless, live TV is one of the most popular moving image offers of Swiss Internet users. Only YouTube can attract 59% more users. Looking at the regions, it shows that live television is used even more often in Western Switzerland (56%) than YouTube (52%). At 21%, the media libraries of the stations are also at the previous year's level, as is video-on-demand at 25%. In the latter case, Disney+ in particular is continuing to grow significantly. 39% of video-on-demand users are already watching content from the US service, which is growing by an additional 12 percentage points. Netflix still remains in first place with 81%.

TV streaming services are being used more often on mobile devices

In 2023, the mobile use of TV streaming services will increase again. About half of the respondents (47%) use a smartphone to watch television over the Internet. That is 7 percentage points more than in 2022. Tablets are also being used more often and are rising by 4 percentage points to 31%. After strong growth in recent years, smart TVs will remain at the previous year's level in 2023. Nevertheless, at 49%, they are the most used device for TV streaming services. In contrast, laptops and PCs are losing 4 percentage points, reaching 42% this year. 

Worries about high inflation have had less impact on streaming subscriptions than expected

Many experts had assumed that the uncertain economic situation would have a negative impact on household media budgets. For example, in a 2022 KPMG study* from the US, around 80% of consumers with a streaming subscription stated that inflation affects their budget in general or their subscription in particular. A study conducted by Recurly** in Germany in 2022 also showed that 84% of German consumers who use one or more subscription services are concerned about the effects of inflation. The present TV streaming report concludes that in Switzerland so far around one in eight Internet users (13%) has cancelled a streaming subscription due to the economic situation. The report also shows that as a result of taking inflation into account, 11% have switched to cheaper streaming offerings and another 6% to free offerings.

"The distance between TV reception via the Internet and reception via cable is getting bigger and bigger. Where cable television has lost significantly in the last year, Internet television has grown immensely," says Jörg Meyer, Chief Commercial Officer at Zattoo. "This is because the advantages of Internet television are convincing: the ability to watch content live and via playback wherever there is an Internet connection, even on the go and when travelling. Compared to Germany and Austria, the pioneering role of Switzerland is once again demonstrated in TV reception over the Internet." 

*Vgl. KPMG, “KPMG 2022 Media Consumer Survey”,  https://advisory.kpmg.us/content/dam/advisory/en/pdfs/2022/metaverse-rising-skips-beat.pdf, abgerufen am 27.03.2023.

**Vgl. Recurly, “Pandemic vs. Endemic Impacts and Trends on Subscription Services”, https://recurly.com/press/german-consumers-pay/, abgerufen am 27.03.2023.

You can download the TV Streaming Report 2023 for Switzerland here.
You can find the individual graphics for the report here.
Please indicate the following copyright: © Zattoo AG

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