A survey by market research institute TNS Infratest, found that 51.2% of former DVB-T users in Germany have made the move to DVB-T2/HEVC and continue to receive their TV channels terrestrially. TNS Infratest contacted around 200 former DVB-T users on behalf of Zattoo, between 3rd April and 5th April to conduct the research.
Some 23.4% of users opted for other types of service, with 11.5% moving to DTH satellite reception from DVB-T, possibly due to the fact that the service is available free-of-charge. Of the remaining movers, 7% signed up for a cable TV subscription, 3% opted for a streaming provider such as Zattoo, Magine TV or TV Spielfilm live, and 2% switched to IPTV services. Also, some 16.9% of the former DVB-T viewers now use another TV reception method, 5.5% are still evaluating the different options, and 1.5% have stopped watching TV all together.
As regards paying for the DVB-T2 service, Freenet TV, at $6.18 per month, 36.2% are willing to pay with a further 20% possibly paying and 41.9% not prepared to pay at all. At the end of last month, around 160,000 households were signed up for Freenet TV, with the company expecting to reach one million paying customers by the end of next year.
Zattoo also benefitted from the switchover as in the first quarter of this year, over 300,000 new users signed up, including 60,000 in the last week of March.
