Research: Connected TVs in 45% of Italian homes
October 8, 2021
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
The number of Connected TVs in Italy reached 15 million in September 2021, and they are currently present and used in 45 per cent of households.
Two thirds of them are Smart TVs, while the rest are attached devices (such as Amazon Fire and Google Chromecast) and gaming consoles, according to IAB Italia’s White Paper Connected TV.
The number of Connected TVs could reach 18 million (74 per cent of the total) by the end of 2022, when the switchover to DVB-T2 is completed.
The IAB Italia study also revealed that Connected TVs show the highest degree of sharing compared to other devices, with around 70 per cent of users saying they use them together with other people and 35 per cent with more than one person.
Additionally, 21 per cent of users said they always use a second screen (mainly smartphones) when watching Connected TV, 42 per cent do so often and 62 per cent use this second screen for activities related to the content displayed on TV.
On average, Italian spent €24/month on streaming services and subscribe to 2.3 services.
The study also found that 12 per cent prefer to pay in order not to be disturbed by advertising breaks, 47 per cent are in favour of ads in order to benefit from a reduction in the cost of their subscription, while 41 per cent prefer free content supported by advertising.
Meanwhile, data from Samsung shows that, during June 2021, Connected TV users spent an average of 3h23m a day, of which 1h47m for watching linear content and 1h36m for watching streaming content.