Observatoire de l'équipement audiovisuel des foyers en France métropolitaine - Television results for the 1st half of 2023

Editorial

Arcom and its partners present the results of the Observatoire de l'équipement audiovisuel des foyers au premier semestre 2023 for television.

Hybrid audiovisual equipment and usage (combining linear and on-demand services) continued to increase in thefirst half of 2023, fueled by the nationwide rollout of fiber, which provides access to an ever-growing number of digital services. As a result of the changes seen over the last few years, traditional TV access modes and media are gradually being replaced by equipment offering a multiplicity of uses.

Audiovisuel equipment

On average, households have 5.7 screens on which to watch videos, with smartphones and computers being the most numerous. Despite a downward trend over the past few years, the TV set remains the most widespread broadcast medium (89.9%), ahead of the computer (86.8%) and the touchscreen tablet (47.5%).

Households not equipped with a TV set have a younger, higher socio-professional categories reference person, and are more likely to live in large conurbations. Conversely, equipped households are more likely to live in small or medium-sized towns, with a retired or lower socio-professional categories reference person.

Television reception modes

Internet reception (IPTV) remains the leading mode of TV access among TV-equipped households (67.5%, up 3.7 points year-on-year). This strong growth is mainly due to the rapid development of fiber over the past five years (44.7%, +39.4 points over eight years), with its reception rate now overtaking DTT (41.3%, -16.4 points over eight years). However, DTT remains the preferred choice in certain regions of western France.

Television reception exclusively via DTT still concerns 19% of TV-equippedhouseholds. They justify this exclusive mode of access first and foremost by their satisfaction with reception quality and the services on offer. Free-to-air channels and low TV usage are increasingly cited as reasons for this choice of reception. These reasons may also explain why DTT is preferred to IPTV on the secondary set (44.8% of households equipped with at least one secondary set use DTT, versus 39% for IPTV).

Connecting TV sets to the Internet has enabled the development of a multiplicity of audiovisual uses, particularly among the youngsters.

Connected TV equipment and uses

Nearly 9 out of 10 TV-equipped households have a TV set connected to the Internet (86%, +3 points over one year), mainly via an Internet Service Provider (ISP) TV set-top box, the primary means of connecting the TV set (83% of connected TV-equipped households, stable over one year). While connection via a connected gaming console (40%, -2 points in one year) or a connected TV set-top box (28%, -3 points in one year) saw a slight decrease over the half-year, connected Smart TV continues the strong increase seen over the last few years: now 53% of receiver-in-homes connect their TV directly to the Internet via a connected Smart TV (+20 points in five years).

Linear TV broadcasting remains the most popular use of connected TVs for all age categories , except for 15-24 year-olds, who prefer online gaming, video on demand services and browsing multimedia content stored on a USB stick or hard disk. Conversely , the use of video on demand services is only absent among the over-50s. This break reflects the ubiquity of digital uses among youngsters, and confirms the developments in audiovisual consumption observed since the democratization of equipment and mobile Internet access.

For the first time this semester, individuals were asked about their interest in the new Ultra-High Definition (UHD, also summoned "4K") and High Dynamic Resolution (HDR ) image formats on the TV set. While UHD/4K is better known than HDR (80% vs. 42%), the availability of these two formats has a significant impact on the purchase of a new TV set for around 60% of those aware of UHD/4K and HDR.

Juliette Théry

Member ofArcom

President of the Observatoire de l'équipement audiovisuel des foyers de France métropolitaine.