The moving picture sets the trend

Medienbudget Die Schweizerinnen und Schweizer gaben letztes Jahr 3137 Franken für Medien aus – zwei Prozent mehr als 2006.

Media budget The Swiss spent CHF 3137 on media last year - two percent more than in 2006. The third edition of the study on the media budgets of Swiss private households, conducted by the Swiss Press Association, also shows that the Swiss are spending a little more on their media consumption every year. Expenditure rose by two percent last year to an average of CHF 3137 per household. The cinema and television segments benefited the most from this upward trend, while print media remained stable with total sales of CHF 1.8 billion.  
Total media consumption in the country with one of the highest media densities in the world is correspondingly high and amounted to an impressive CHF 10.4 billion last year. Content accounted for CHF 5.8 billion, devices for CHF 3.1 billion and access for CHF 1.5 billion. While the market for content and access continues to grow, the market for hardware declined slightly.
 
With a 30.6 percent share of the total content budget of CHF 5.8 billion, the press is still the largest producer of content and therefore also the largest opinion maker. The three best-selling newspapers are Blick, SonntagsBlick and Tages-Anzeiger. In the consumer, financial and business press, they are Beobachter, Schweizer Illustrierte and Das Beste/Sélection, and in the specialty press K-Tipp, Saisonküche and Saldo.
 
IT and telecoms are in second place with 19.3%, ahead of television with 13.6%. According to the study, this documents the socio-political role of the press, which largely sets the topics of public debate with news and information. It can also be concluded that despite the many new free offerings, the Swiss are still prepared to pay for attractive content.
 
Television continues to grow Radio and TV are the second-largest expenditure item with a combined total of almost three billion francs and a rising trend. With TV reception fees remaining the same, sales of television sets exceeded one billion francs for the first time. As in the previous year, flat screens were the top seller. Although digital cable television grew by around twelve percent, this was below expectations. At the end of the year, Bluewin TV recorded around 20,000 new connections. 55,000 satellite dishes were sold in 2006, 10,000 more than in the previous year. While fee income for the radio medium remained practically stable, sales of radio receivers fell by a third.
 
The turnover for Internet downloads grew by 24 percent, that for mobile downloads by 38 percent in 2006. Last year, a total of over one billion Swiss francs was spent on paid content via the Internet, mobile or landline telephone. Expenditure by private households on broadband connections rose by around 16%. By contrast, spending on computers has fallen. Desktop devices even saw a slump of almost 30%.
 
The Swiss went to the movies more often again in 2006. Revenues rose to 245 million francs. DVDs are also becoming increasingly popular. The Swiss spent around 360 million francs on films on these glittering disks in 2006. The market for computer and video games also grew by 14.4 percent. At around 689 million, books are still an important budget item, even if their sales are on a slight downward trend.
 
The detailed media budget can be downloaded at www.medienbudget.ch.
 
Swiss Press Association/(rw)

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