Observatory of audiovisual equipment in households in metropolitan France - TV results for the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2021

Arcom and its partners present the results of last year's equipment observatory, which includes data for the second half of 2021 for television and 2021 for radio.

Observing equipment is of interest to Arcom for several reasons.It enables us to feed economic analyses, given the growing importance of the data collected for advertising targeting and the decisive role of terminals in access to this resource, or, from a more technical point of view, to better understand the influence of equipment on users' choice of content.

Above all, the present document is an extremely useful tool for monitoring developments in the sector. Equipment, which provides the connection interface between usersand audiovisual services,is a key element in the development of the audiovisual sector.
between users and audiovisual services, have the dual property of meeting consumer expectations and initiating changes in usage. For example, the widely renewed and expanded functions of certain equipment, such as smartphones, enable individual access to audiovisual supplies on the move, thereby changing the social relationship with content.

In this respect, developments specific to the year 2021 are mainly linked to the effects of the health crisis. This crisis has had a significant transformative or accelerating effect on content consumption patterns, which have shifted towards video-on-demand by contract. At the time of the third containment in April 2021, the monthly number of users was 9.2 million, compared with 8.7 million in December of the same year, following the gradual abandonment of restrictive measures, a figure that represents an increase compared with the end of 2020.

The results of the observatory also confirm the trends in TV reception modes, mainly driven by the accelerating roll-out of fiber, which are affecting the sector.

Since 2016, when the curves for broadband, fiber and DTT reception crossed, the majority of TV supplies have been received via the Internet.

The growth of internet reception (IPTV) was confirmed last year, reaching a penetration rate of 62.9% of TV-equipped households (+2.4 points year-on-year - with an increasingly large share of connections enabled by fiber), while terrestrial reception continues to decline (48.7% in 2021, -3.8 points year-on-year).

This trend has a particular impact on distribution.Even if access to content is overwhelmingly provided by InternetService Providers (ISPs) thanks to triple-play supplies (82% of households equipped with a connected TV have an ISP box), access to connected reception directly on the TV set is growing (the HbbTV installed base reached 7.3 million in 2021, up 2.7 million in one year), driven by the rising penetration rate of smart TVs (+5 points). This development towards an alternative solution to the managed Internet involves new intermediaries (manufacturers,operating schemes).

The development of multi-functional TV sets, such as gaming consoles, is also driving new developments in usage.

As in 2020, the most popular uses of connected TV sets, other than linear consumption, remain OTT video content viewing (on video-on-demand services by contract, or video-sharing platforms) and catch-up TV. The former is particularly widespread on Smart TVs and via OTT boxes, while the Internet Service Provider's TV set-top box remains the preferred choice for the latter.

More generally, we're seeing an increase in the consumption of content, linear or otherwise, that doesn 't necessarily require a TV set. In this respect, the proportion of households without a TV set has increased by 2.5 points in 3 years. In 71.1% of these households, the household's listener is under 49 years of age.

These developments combine with the resilience of traditional reception methods.

With regard to television, despite a slight and steady decline, the TV set remains the most widespread screen in households, with a penetration rate of 90.9% of households at the end of 2021, ahead of the computer (85.8%), the smartphone (79.7% of those aged 11 and over) and finally the tablet (46.3% of households).

While the rate of DTT reception is eroding over time, it is eroding unevenly by region - with the Ile-de-France region having a strong influence on the national average - and by profile. DTT is still the only reception mode for 20.5% of TV-equipped households, with an over-representation of single-person households, those where the reference person is over 50 or inactive, and those living in small towns.DTT, received by 12 million households, remains essential for over 5 million of them.

As for radio, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2021, radio-dedicated media are still more widely used as a primary listening medium than multimedia media: 70% of people aged 13 and over say they use a radio-dedicated medium as their primary listening medium, while 30% use a multimedia medium as their "primary listening medium" .

Finally, DAB+ roll-out accelerated at the end of 2021.By the end of 2022, 50% of the French population will be covered by DAB+, which should contribute to an increase in the penetration rate of equipment.

Finally, the observatory confirms structural developments that challenge historical business models, but set them within a medium-term timeframe, in line with the resilience of traditional reception modes.

Juliette Théry

Member of Arcom

President of the Observatoire de l'équipement audiovisuel des foyers de France métropolitaine(Observatory of audiovisual equipment in homes in mainlandFrance)