(Photo: Keystone)

She has just returned from Cannes. "Visiting this festival is really very exciting. But of course I got to know a completely different Cannes than the spectacle you see in the media." Catherine Ann Berger is referring to the stilettos, the red carpet, evening gowns and stars who really are "bigger than life".

However, the newly appointed director of the Swiss Films promotion agency was even more impressed by the market in her first assignment: "2000 stands and country pavilions where people are working hard." Since June 1, Catherine Ann Berger's new job has been to design and manage this work and to represent Swiss filmmaking at similar events.

"I've been invited to a farewell aperitif at Swiss Television this afternoon," the filmmaker begins during our interview. In addition to SRF, her stations have included SF, SPlus, Schweiz 4 and 3sat over the course of her career. "This morning I reflected on what it means for me to say goodbye now."

SRG is a large organization and large organizations are usually a bit cumbersome. "But at the same time, it has to be said that I was able to work in an organization that gave me a lot of opportunities. If you look at how Google is set up today, SRG has a very similar attitude. I was able to develop in the midst of a high level of professionalism. I am incredibly grateful for that."

Catherine Ann Berger entered this world at SPlus, the first second channel on Swiss television at the time. She applied as a trainee shortly before completing her degree in theater studies at the University of Vienna. The application process took over three months. In the end, they took someone else. I liked that a bit."

An internship with Heiner Müller in Berlin was more than a nice consolation. The seven-hour production of "Hamlet/Maschine" at the Deutsches Theater turned out to be an unrepeatable insight not only into the world of the stage, but also into contemporary history shortly after reunification. "It was exciting and I am still connected to the theater today, on the board of directors of Theater Neumarkt. I love the live character. But I'm also very much in love with the magic of the movie theater. Sitting in a dark room, immersed in the screen and in the stories of these people. So I was drawn more into the world of media and movies." Stories where you can press "stop", "replay" and "fast forward".

After SPlus, she quickly moved on to SF, where she made purchases in the documentary film department and was then able to produce reports for the youth magazine "Zebra" relatively quickly. "A great format where young people could experiment and let off steam cinematically. Sabine Boss's first film was made in this way, as was one of Jacqueline Zünd's first."

After two years, the magazine was discontinued. So Berger applied for a job as a reporter at 3sat. However, they were looking for a presenter. "They took me by surprise with a test and I passed. " This was followed by an invitation to a second test in Mainz and soon Catherine Ann Berger was the Swiss face of "Kulturzeit". In rotation with her colleagues from ORF and ZDF, she presented this cultural "10 to 10" show in Mainz one week a month for six years. Live every day in prime time. "Our aim was to react to current events from a cultural point of view and to take a stand."

After six years of everyday journalism, Catherine Ann Berger has realized "that I no longer have to put my two cents in on everything". The "Kulturzeit" feature section is very broad and has quality. But for Berger, things have changed. "My time was over. I wanted to concentrate more again, focus and go deeper." The bottom line: "I wanted to get back to cinema and work for film."

Berger started again as a film critic on the "Kino aktuell" program and as an editor for the discussion show "Filmclub", which was hosted by Samir and others at the time.

"There have always been times in my life when I was fully focused on a task and others when I wanted to have a free leg. That was the case again now." At the same time as working as a film critic, the presenter who left the industry has resumed her training as a film dramaturge. Berger founded her own company, "Framing Words", and increasingly saw herself as a script coach. In this role, she has worked for many well-known productions and also co-authored the hit film "Die Herbstzeitlosen" by Bettina Oberli.

As a film dramaturge, Berger remained associated with the "Film and Series" department at Swiss Television. In today's "Fiction" department, she was most recently responsible for editing, but above all for co-productions in the animated film sector. Her expertise was also in demand as a jury member for the Swiss Film Prize, the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, the Diagonale Graz and in Vienna she was on the project commission of the Austrian Film Fund for the screenplay section.

Viennese philosophies

Culture was Catherine Ann Berger's great passion even as a teenager. She grew up bilingually in Bern in a "culturally very interested home". Her father comes from the Emmental. Her mother from England. "With two passports, I am now a European." In 1984, she graduated from the Bern gymnasium. One month later, she was already in Vienna. "I had to leave Bern. The city was incredibly cramped for me. I found it claustrophobic that everyone always knew where you were on Friday evening." She followed her dance teacher's call to Vienna.

"There have always been moments in my life when people have called me. That was first the case in Vienna, later in Mainz and now in my new job as Director of Swiss Films. I wasn't explicitly asked, but I knew that this opportunity and task was waiting for me."

After a year in ballet in Vienna, Berger realized relatively quickly that standing in front of a mirror for a day is not really what interests her. "My brain would like to be switched on a bit more again."

The best opportunity for this was in theater studies. "I saw this subject as an ideal complement between theory and practice. And you couldn't study theater studies in Switzerland at that time. Luckily for me, I was able to stay in Vienna a little longer."

During his studies, Berger also discovered relatively quickly that this ideal combination of theory and practice is a bit of wishful thinking. "Nevertheless, I learned a lot about my way of thinking in Vienna. I studied philosophy, political science and sociology. Gender studies also emerged during my time there. I also picked up the specific aspects of film studies from many different subjects."

In Vienna, Berger felt like the "gschaffige Schweizerin" for a long time. She therefore had to learn what it meant to say: "This is never going to end." It means something like: "I think we should take a break now and go back to the coffee house. " This mentality gave her a bit of a hard time at the beginning. "Then I learned that sometimes you have to let things go a little. Then it somehow keeps working inside you. And the next morning you might get to the point faster. So I learned a lot from my approach in Vienna and took a lot with me. The sitting, the philosophizing and the debating."

She completed her degree with a thesis on the phenomenon of the "panorama". These are circular paintings, such as the 360° depiction of the Bourbaki army in Lucerne's rock garden. Berger sees such paintings as a kind of "very early cinematic experience" for people. "And it's a democratization of the view." The panorama, where you go underground to the center, offers everyone the same panoramic view of the world. " Today, Catherine Ann Berger seeks to discover this view out into the world in film. As a script coach, what does she think of local creation? "I've read a handful of grotty scripts and a handful of excellent ones. With most projects, however, the following applies: they are scripts in which you can find interesting aspects. But with many of them, I can't see any compelling necessity for the film to be made. I have the impression that, due to the production landscape in Switzerland, people are more quickly satisfied with the script - or are more quickly forced to transfer it to a production phase so that the production company can continue working."

The situation of Swiss screenplays

To summarize, the film dramaturge would generally like to see "one more round of work on most Swiss scripts". But Berger sees it the same in every country. "There were rounds in the Austrian project commission where I read up to forty scripts. Ten or twelve of them made it through. It's no different in Germany either. A few more scripts simply get through there because the country is much bigger."

And now? No more building films, but selling the finished product, which can no longer be changed, to as wide an audience as possible?

The new director of Swiss Films wants to take a more differentiated approach to her job. "A film doesn't come to me completely finished. I often see a rough cut, where we can give feedback again." In this phase, can decisive improvements be made to the positioning of the film? "Are there opportunities to tighten up a certain aspect a little? To accentuate something?" For Catherine Ann Berger, it would be a great wish "that we can build up a relationship of trust between production and promotion".

Moreover, the dramaturgy of a film does not end with the final cut, but a process begins again at the launch: What is my logline, what is my short synopsis? What does the title, the poster promise? "Once again, it's about storytelling, namely: What is the essence of this film?" Berger wants to sharpen the focus in all these areas: "How do we brand a film?" She wants to analyze this again: Where can networks be connected? How can Swiss Films create lobbying for films, positioning and consider together with the industry? What is the quality of the film? Where can it best develop?

The services of Swiss Films

In principle, Swiss Films is open to all projects. "I'm only at the beginning of my work. But I have formed an image for myself: We are like a hotel. There are suites and VIP guests, there are double rooms and single rooms, because the couple in the double room have split up. Then there are the attics. Every guest comes to reception and can expect a bed and a certain amount of basic facilities, because we are a service company. Of course, there are many who are a bit more famous and have a bit more money. They may also have a different potential. You can place them somewhere else. But for me it's important to say: only a full hotel is a good hotel. And it happens again and again: very often you can suddenly go from a suite to a mansard with the next movie. And it doesn't mean that it's any less good. Perhaps the attic has a wonderful view and a quality of its own, a small, quirky, perhaps autobiographical quality. One that surprises and amazes, that he or she would make such a work again, documentary, biographical, poetic. And suddenly you get together with someone and end up in a really great double room and everyone thinks: wow, they're married now!"

In such a "Filmhotel Schweiz", there are many stories that can be made up. The central concept for Berger is "the development and development opportunities of every film". She knows that everyone wants to go to Cannes and Berlin "and that's very exciting and great". It's a great honor to be told: We're voting you into the competition. "But let's be realistic: not every film is suitable for developing in this environment and being able to withstand this competition. It can also break a movie. It goes down the drain and never makes it to theaters again."

So you can say you were in Cannes, "but so what?". Swiss Films knows that there are other festivals where film is appreciated, welcomed and honored. The actors are celebrated. "Our job is to consult with the producers and directors there: Where can the film develop best? Where is it appreciated? This is a collaboration, a discussion. And we also put ourselves at the service of the producers and directors so that the film can have the best life it could possibly have."

Andreas Panzeri

As a script consultant, Catherine Ann Berger was co-author of the hit movie "Die Herbstzeitlosen".
 

Some lament the loss of privacy, others welcome the creation of transparency. Cultural pessimists rail against shallow tweets and irrelevant status messages along the lines of "I'm going to eat a sandwich," while extroverts delight in witty posts and share their party photos with friends. Uninformed tweets have already ruined some politicians' careers, and others have led to a shitstorm because of moral apologists, who also exist in social media.

During Hurricane Sandy, countless social media were used. On the one hand for mobile communication, because there was no more electricity, but then also for prevention. Alarm messages and notices from the rescue forces were disseminated in this way. But of course, voyeuristic disaster images were also disseminated. For a while, social media were the only sources of information. Curse or blessing?

The two rampage killers, who killed a soldier in broad daylight in London with a knife and a butcher's cleaver, asked passersby to record one of them's confused words using a smartphone - knowing that the hate tirade would also find its way into the classic media via social media. That's what it found, triggering discussions on media ethics. Curse or blessing?

The organizers of the "Tanz dich frei" rally in Bern "successfully" called for participation via Facebook. The result: violent confrontation with many injured and large property damage. The Bernese police do not rule out an Internet manhunt. At the same time, however, Bernese security director Reto Nause wants to take legal action against Facebook. Curse or blessing?

While thousands of demonstrators in Turkey take to the streets and fight street battles with the police, Prime Minister Erdogan rails against the social networks. He says that only lies are spread there. He says they are the "worst threat to society." But the traditional media in Turkey, intimidated by rigid legislation, carry little to nothing about the demonstrations. Most of the information runs on Twitter. Meanwhile, Turkish police have apparently already arrested dozens of Twitter users. Curse or blessing?

There are countless more examples. Social media can be a curse or a blessing, but we can no longer avoid them; they are part of our networked society. We have to learn how to deal with them.

Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief [email protected]
 

Hieber thus takes over the position from Peter A. Cologna, who left the company on May 31, 2013. Siegbert Hieber has been with Easy Fairs for a total of three and a half years. In January 2010, he had taken over as managing director for Germany and Austria. He already has over twelve years of trade fair experience. He started at Messe München in the IT sector via his diploma thesis on the subject of sales strategies for Central Eastern European countries: "Via a short stay abroad, I then ended up at GHM Gesellschaft für Handwerksmessen, with the aim of doing craft-oriented trade fairs." At GHM Gesellschaft für Handwerksmessen, Hieber had already been in charge of various trade fairs as a project officer and moved to the international craft trade fair. At the international craft fair, Hieber had spent four years as project manager for the entire international craft fair, for whose development and implementation he was responsible.

According to the press release, the current decision pursues several goals at once. Siegbert Hieber explains: "We are now active in 16 countries in Europe. Easy Fairs was founded in 2004 in Belgium, where our headquarters are still located. We now organize between 80 and 90 trade fairs a year throughout Europe. The next steps are: Which trade show themes fit us best, how can we further develop these trade show themes, how can we make them even more interesting for our trade visitors, and how do we have to design the trade shows to be absolutely future-proof."

Preserve Swiss identity

For Siegbert Hieber, the decision to bring all three countries together under one management has a common denominator: "Here, we don't just have German as an official language. I think it is crucial that we have our own identity here and that we also do trade shows tailored to the Swiss market. From that point of view, the office here in Muttenz and also the trade fair teams will remain on site, because we also need the competence in the country. The idea is, where can we coordinate better, where can we also communicate exhibitors back and forth between the two countries more efficiently. The crucial point is communication. For me, it is important that we retain the Swiss characteristics. After all, we also organize Austria from Munich. You can't adapt that 1:1 and it's similar with Switzerland. We want to keep the Swiss and all the positive things and continue to expand the trade show portfolio together."

 

Do you eat muesli every day for breakfast or afternoon snack and think you're living healthily? Or do you provide your children with grains in the firm belief that you are doing them something good? I'm sorry to disappoint you. Müesli can be very unhealthy, and in some cases even life-threatening. A large Swiss food company, for example, offers small cinnamon squares. With 32 percent whole grain cereals, these sweet beasts suggest that they are a valuable food ingredient. However, they contain twice as much sugar and fat as healthy ingredients; they also taste sticky. But, well, that's not life-threatening. If unhealthy, then eat it properly and with full awareness - that has always been my point of view.

Poor childhood

What makes me rather thoughtful is another addition to the sweet cereal: the packet comes with a computer game, "recommended (!) from three (!) years of age". With "Team Hot Wheels" you can play three different night racing games. Either you race through a "dangerous harbor area and push all obstacles out of the way", you pass through a "construction zone and need all your skill to drive through the building site in the city center" or, in the "High-Speed Beach" version, you "race along the beach at high speed and against a backdrop of neon lights". Great! The effect of computer games on children and young people is regularly the subject of heated debate, usually when a youngster who was previously considered nice, well-adjusted and inconspicuous has unexpectedly shot up a few classmates and his favorite teacher. But as opinions differ on this topic, it is always quickly put aside.

Even the vocabulary used to advertise the three Müesli games sends a shiver down my spine. It could hardly be more aggressive and shallow. In the next version of "Team Hot Wheels", you will probably be able to shoot at passers-by from the passenger window. Of course, anyone who regularly consumes cinnamon muesli from the age of four does not immediately become a violent racer with a penchant for mass murder. Nevertheless, it is worrying that such young people should find it fun and exciting to behave stupidly and recklessly and endanger others - even if it is only a thousand times in front of the computer.

Credibility falls by the wayside

What's more, an epilepsy warning is printed on the cereal packet: epileptic seizures could be a consequence of such computer games. And they could be addictive, the manufacturer also warns. Now think about it: on a packet of cinnamon snacks, a speeding game is advertised that pays homage to aggressive driving and can lead to epilepsy and addiction. To me, that's like hanging a few hand grenades on a Christmas tree.

And all this is served to me for breakfast at half past eight in the morning, while the lumps of corn I'm chewing on taste like sweetened cardboard. It really makes you lose your appetite. Perhaps, in the interests of credibility, the müesli marketers should think about what kind of game might be better suited to their product - or which product might be better suited to their game. Or can you imagine people who play speeding games nibbling on cinnamon potato chips?
 

In his role, Daniel Meister will report to the Sales Director, Beat Sulzer. Meister has many years of sales experience in the media industry, as Clear Channel writes in a press release. Before joining Publisuisse as Head of Sales for the French-speaking market, where he most recently worked, he was Head of Key Account Management & Client Service and a member of the regional management team at Publicitas.

 

We assess the efficiency of an AdWords campaign exclusively with measurable ROI targets. However, not all companies are familiar with the parameters for measuring success, so they rely on click-through rates (CTR) and click costs (CPC). A company uses AdWords to target qualified prospects and buyers for its offer. And it does this not at any price, but profitably. To do this, it determines how high the costs for an order - CPO (cost per order) - or an inquiry - CPL (cost per lead) - may be. If no empirical values are available, assumptions are made: If the sales price is 100.-, acquisition costs of 50.- are out of the question, 5.- francs on the other hand are realistic. Thus, the AdWords campaign must acquire new customers at a CPO of 5.- francs. Here is an example: If, for example, an average of -.50 is paid per click (CPC) and every tenth AdWords visitor orders, then the goal has been achieved. If only every twentieth visitor orders, the CPO increases to CHF 10.

Wrong targets lead to losses

We recommend subjecting the targets, which are based on assumptions, to a plausibility check: For example, if the average CPC for keywords on the topic of red wine is 1.42 francs, a CPO of 5.- francs is hardly achievable, since every third visitor would have to place an order. (For the plausibility check we use the Keyword Tool in the AdWords account. Attention: The CPC figures tend to be set too high). Once the campaign is up and running, after two to three months of intensive optimization work, it is clear whether the CPO or CPL targets have been reached. If the CPO is not reached, the campaign does not necessarily have to be terminated; a focus can bring the desired success: e.g. by abandoning expensive generic keywords such as "red wine", "hiking boots", "hotel Ticino" in favor of more favorable niche keywords such as "light red wine with fish", "waterproof hiking boots" or "hotel center Lugano". If the campaign does not reach the CPO target, this may well be due to inherent website problems: The landing pages do not convince visitors, as a result the conversion rate is low and the CPO is high. Since landing pages contribute significantly to the success of an AdWords campaign, they must be included in the optimization process. In order for an AdWords campaign to be profitable with increasing click costs and higher optimization efforts, measurable targets are therefore essential.

Imre Sinka
 

Photo: Isabel Imper

Frank Bodin, you are often referred to in the media as a "star advertiser. What percentage of the time does this label bother you, and what percentage of the time does it flatter you?
Exactly 40:60. I can do without the four letters of "Star" coined by the Yellow press. The six letters of "Werber" are enough.
 
2. how do you introduce yourself to people you don't know?
I say, "Frank Bodin. I work at the advertising and communications agency Havas Worldwide."
 
3. can you do this in Turkish? After all, your partner has Turkish roots.
Hayır, which means no in Turkish. My knowledge of Turkish is limited to a "children's Turkish ". Since our daughter grows up bilingual, I know such unnecessary words like stork (leylek) or bee (arı).
 
4. you were in Hawaii a few months ago: what were you looking for there?
Above all, time for Emel, our daughter Ayleen and myself. And the greatest possible distance at Christmas from Switzerland. We took a month's vacation and traveled around L.A., Maui and Oahu.
 
5. can you surf now?
No, I didn't do that to myself right from the start. I didn't want to learn anything, I didn't want to do anything extraordinary, I just wanted to spend some good time with my family and enjoy nature.
 
6. what qualities make you a good advertiser?
Curiosity, interest in people and in different industries, versatility, analytical thinking. And I have a basic need to move things and - with the means of creativity - to change things for the better.
 
7. which cliché about advertisers can you not stand?
That of the party-partying, big-earning, drug-using advertiser.
 
8. what brings you on the palm of your hand?  
Disrespect and silence. And I can't stand it when employees of ours are treated unfairly.
 
9. what brings you back down from there?
That I address the grievance directly.
 
10. when is there a bad mood in your agency?
If we lose a customer or are unsuccessful in a new business deal.
 
11. what are you doing about it as an agency head?
In such moments, it is my job to motivate again and provide orientation. Despite all the short-term ups and downs, it is important to keep an eye on the longer-term goals.
 
12. what do you like about the swiss advertising scene?
Some extraordinary personalities. I came into this industry as a career changer because there were quite a few exciting personalities in advertising: Jean-Etienne Aeby, Reinhold Weber, Martin Denecke and others.
 
13: What annoys you about the local advertising industry?

Frank Bodin answers these and 88 other questions in the current print edition 10/2013 of June 7. Subscribers can also read the entire interview online.
 
Interview: Isabel Imper

in a nutshell

Frank Bodin, Chairman and CEO of Havas Worldwide Switzerland with agencies in Zurich and Geneva. President of the Art Director Club ADC. Jury member Cannes Festival, Clio Awards etc., Jury President Golden Drum 2004 and AdPrint Festival 2007. Studies at the Zurich Conservatory and at the Law Faculty of the University of Zurich. Pianist and composer. 1992 entry into advertising as copywriter. Jury Chairman ADC Switzerland, Board Member SW (Swiss Advertising) and BSW Leading Swiss Agencies. Advisory board at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (HWZ). Member of the Swiss Chapter of the Club of Rome. Frank Bodin's books "Bilder fürs Ohr - Besser im Radio werben" (2003) and "Katz und aus - Essenzialismen" (2004) have been published.

The result is nine independent solutions. They are intended to reflect the different demands, challenges, market and ownership structures of the companies, as the agency writes in a press release on Thursday. Depending on the project, the work ranged from concept development, design and text editing to production-ready implementation.

This year, Wirz Corporate has developed a comprehensive online annual report for Publigroupe. The aim is to continue the Group's strategic orientation towards becoming a digitally oriented service provider right through to its financial reporting.
 

The aim is to reward travelers for their loyalty, make it possible to experience personal train travel in a new way, and thus increase loyalty to public transport. Holders of a Half-Fare or GA travelcard registered on the Mobilbonus.ch customer loyalty platform benefit from special offers and many extra services. This writes Maxomedia in a statement on Thursday.

The "MobilBonus" app builds on the "gleis7" app that has been available since 2010 and has been expanded to include new functions. With the app, registered users can check in to their train and thus collect kilometers. These can be redeemed for offers such as free class change, free night supplement and discount vouchers for the SBB ticket store. Users can see how much CO2 they have saved in their personal "public transport statistics". The individualized dashboard also shows many other figures relating to one's own train history, such as how many train journeys one has already made, how much time one has spent on the train, or how many stations one has already visited.

Maxomedia was responsible for the conception, consulting and screen design of the app, Moca is responsible for the conception, interaction design and technical implementation of the app. The app is already available for iPhone users in the Store, the Android version will follow at the end of June.

Responsible at SBB: Ariane Müller (Manager Customer Loyalty Mobil Bonus).

What can the medium of cinema learn from this? Clearly, advertising also has to taste good - for the advertisers, but above all for the target groups at which the advertising is aimed. Cinema advertising per se is traditionally very popular with moviegoers. But what does "dosing instead of scattering" mean for cinema campaigns? It means that we are looking for planning solutions that filter out the people relevant to a brand within the medium of cinema. And this works best via the movie - anything but simple, but it works.

The general target group structure of moviegoers is interesting: active and mobile, rather younger people, socially engaged, no "couch potatoes", well educated and financially able to cope well in the leisure jungle outside their own four walls. However, it only becomes really exciting when these target groups can be differentiated more precisely in terms of their characteristics. A few years ago, it was still possible to say that cinema-goers as a whole were more specific than any given TV environment (on a reasonably wide-reaching channel). In a differentiated media world with an exponentially increasing number of available channels, this no longer applies.

For us, this also means that we have to offer finer and more precise instruments. Compared to TV - especially with the current desolate data situation - this is a rather simple exercise. Precise attendance figures from all box office data of the cinemas per screening, day and campaign already provide an unsurpassed accurate picture of the performance achieved. Even a functioning panel will not be able to keep up with this. The challenge for cinemas, however, lies with the films. Why shouldn't a campaign that is primarily aimed at women also be shown to a female audience? A cinema campaign will therefore have to be geared towards the structural data of the target group. To do this, it must be known or validly forecast what the visitor structure of the 500 or so new films that are released in cinemas every year will look like. It's a lot of work, but it can be done. Once this task has been solved - and please at the individual film level and not by genre - a reliable audience forecast per film is required. Also a lot of work, but solvable. For this purpose, all films from the last few years are used for referencing with their audience structures. The better this preparation is done, the higher the target group share will be in the planning - and the more accurately the campaign will achieve or even exceed its performance targets.

To avoid having to "reinvent" every target group, we have created prototypical clusters that make planning easier for agencies and clients. Experienced cinema planners can also get very close to their target group by selecting individual films. We call the process "Werbe Weischer CR" and are a little proud that it works so well in Switzerland. Within just under six months, it has completely redefined the standards in a market that was previously completely static for long periods of time. We are also pleased that some (but not all) of its components have been imitated in the market.

Taking a closer look and adapting to the specific tastes of the target group has always been an advantage. It's all about the right dose - in the movies as well as in food.

 

A recent study by Harris Interactive of 2,343 consumers aged 18 and over in the USA shows the extent to which this option is already being used by consumers. The result: traditional television is still particularly popular with consumers. However, other distribution channels - including streaming - are increasingly supplementing TV usage. As far as access to streamed TV content is concerned, according to the study, around a third of respondents have the option of watching streamed content directly on their TV set, for example via an internet-enabled smart TV (17 %) or a set-top box or games console connected to the TV set (19 %). Conversely, although 60% of respondents state that their TV set is not connected to the internet, almost all respondents have a laptop or desktop PC (93 %), one in four have a tablet (24 %) and almost one in two have a smartphone (47 %) - and therefore in principle have access to streamed TV content.

The study shows that this access is also being used: Around half of US Americans (53 %) state that they have already watched TV via streaming.

Streaming TV content is by no means just an interesting alternative to other forms of television for a minority. For one in five Americans (20 %), streaming via TV, computer, tablet or smartphone is a frequently used option for consuming TV content. Among 18 to 35-year-olds, as many as 41% state that streaming is one of their most frequently used TV options. This trend towards streaming is expected to increase further in the future. A total of 20% of respondents state that they stream more today than they did a year ago. In the under-35 age group, the figure is as high as 32%, i.e. a good one in three. In addition, around two in ten consumers (19 %) assume that they will probably stream comparatively more in a year's time than they do today. Among the under-35s, as many as 27% expect an increase.

Interesting detail: The study also shows that households with children appear to be more streaming-savvy than households without children. Around 60% of households with children have streamed at least once, compared to only 49% of households without children. However, one possible reason for this is the difference in equipment: significantly more households with children than households without children have an internet-enabled TV set (38 vs. 27 %). There are also more smartphones (62 vs. 40 %) and tablets (31 vs. 21 %) in households with children.

Nevertheless, there is probably no need to worry about the future of the classic TV set despite the streaming offer - because the TV in the living room is still by far the most frequently used end device, across all age groups. Nine out of ten respondents (89 %) mention the classic TV set (explicitly without streaming) when asked which channels and devices they use most frequently to watch TV. Live consumption continues to predominate: more than half of all respondents (56 %) consume TV content primarily at the time of broadcast, while only around three in ten respondents state that they frequently watch pre-recorded programs (32 %) or use the on-demand offerings of providers (29 %).

Clemens Koob
 

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Key Facts
- 53 percent of US Americans have at least once
TV content streamed online.
- For 20 percent of those surveyed, streaming is already one of the
most frequently used access to TV content. Among 18 to
35-year-olds, the figure is as high as 41 percent
- 19 percent of those surveyed expect to see even more
to stream.
- However, with 89 percent of mentions, the classic TV set
continues to be by far the most widely used way to access television content.
to consume.
- Linear consumption of TV content continues to predominate
compared to time-shifted consumption.