Web use becomes more private
Internet Two SRG studies and a panel show how often and where users in Switzerland use the World Wide Web.
Internet Two SRG studies and a panel show how often and where users in Switzerland use the World Wide Web.59% of the Swiss population aged 15 and over surfed the Internet last year. That is 8 percent more than three years ago. More than half of all Swiss people, namely 54%, already have Internet access at home (11% more than in 2001). Of these, 48% are connected to the Internet via an analog telephone line, 21% have an ISDN connection, 16% surf via ADSL and 11% via TV cable. These figures come from a study by the SRG Research Service, which has the Konso Institute conduct 42,000 computer-assisted interviews per year. The same interviews also serve as the basis for MMXI Switzerland's panel. Of those with an Internet connection at home, a good quarter (27%) used the World Wide Web daily or almost daily in 2003, with a further 17% using it at least once a week. The frequency of use by gender shows that men go online at home more often (32 percent daily or almost daily) than women (19 percent). At the beginning of 2001, this figure was 26% of men and 14% of women. In terms of the age of its users, the Internet continues to present itself as a young medium: 51% of men up to the age of 24 and 38% of women in the same age segment surf daily or almost daily, compared to 21% of men over 50 and only 8% of women over 50.
The situation at work is only slightly different. At the beginning of 2001, the number of people with a network connection at work (42%) was similar to those with a connection at home. However, the former group increased less rapidly - and last year it already decreased again: the (first) peak was passed at 47%, and now only 44% are able to use the network at work - as was the case in summer 2001. It is possible that this development has to do with the redundancies in the banking and service sector. Regular use at work is only increasing slightly: in 2001, 20 percent were regular surfers, in 2003 it was 25 percent. What is interesting, however, is the use of the Internet at work by gender: at the beginning of 2001, 21 percent of men and 11 percent of women surfed the Internet almost daily at work, whereas by mid-2003 this figure had risen to 34 percent of men and 20 percent of women. These changes are more pronounced here than in the private sphere.
German-speaking Swiss surf more
Broken down by language region, the rough results are as follows
Picture: 62% of the Swiss-German population aged 15 and over were online in 2003, and Internet users have increased by 9% since 2001. In French-speaking Switzerland, 55 percent of the population used the Internet, 6 percent more than three years ago. And in Ticino, Internet users account for 38 percent of the population, three percent more than in 2001.
According to MMXI Switzerland, the domains that are visited most frequently throughout Switzerland are Bluewin.ch (1.259 million unique visitors per month) and Google.ch (1.219 million). The most frequently used media sites in German-speaking Switzerland were Blick.ch (164,000 visitors per month) and SFDRS.ch (134,000), in French-speaking Switzerland TSR.ch (45,000) and Lematin.ch (29,000) and in Ticino RTSI.ch (7,000) and Corriere.it and Rai.it (2,000 each).
A third study by the SRG research service examined so-called streaming usage - listening to the radio and watching TV via the Internet. To this end, Konso conducted 1900 interviews throughout Switzerland between January and February 2004. The result: among Swiss Internet users, the consumption of radio and TV content via the Internet is not very widespread. In German-speaking Switzerland, 76 percent of Internet users state that they have never streamed, in French-speaking Switzerland the figure is 80 percent and in Ticino 81 percent. In all regions, a lack of interest is the main reason for not streaming, but it is striking that the proportion of users who were previously unaware of this option or do not know how to do it is far higher in German-speaking Switzerland (24%) than in French-speaking Switzerland (10%) or Ticino (7%).
Of those who stream, most only listen to the radio at home and a small percentage only watch TV. However, 4 percent of German-speaking Swiss, 5 percent of French-speaking Swiss and 1 percent of Ticino users state that they stream both radio and TV content. In all regions, it is mainly young men up to the age of 24 who use streaming media content, with young women not far behind. Interestingly, in Ticino and French-speaking Switzerland, it is primarily women who stream TV content and hardly any men.
Radiocontrol data being checkedOnline access to the 2004 Radiocontrol data is expected to be available again at the end of April. The online data has been unavailable since March 12. The reason: the responsible institute, IHA-GfK, made a mistake when processing the data. When extrapolating the correctly and completely measured data, the institute did not take into account the transition from the previously proportional to the disproportional sample, which led to incorrect figures. This is now being corrected and checked. (mk)
Research Service unchanged for the time beingManuel Dähler, the new Head of the SRG Research Service (FD) since 1 March 2004, noted that the FD organization and
-structure will remain untouched until the new RTVA has been definitively adopted. Only then will it be clear what the legislator actually wants. The version of the RTVA approved by the National Council wants to hive off the FD from the SRG and transfer it to a foundation. Last year, the SRG proposed a merger of FD and Publica Data, causing unrest. The outgoing Head of FD Matthias Steinmann looks back on his 35 years at FD and thanked, among others, the SRG Directorate General, which initiated around six investigations and hearings against him and "mostly" gave him quite a lot of freedom. (mk)
Manuel Dähler (l.) takes over from Matthias Steinmann.
The situation at work is only slightly different. At the beginning of 2001, the number of people with a network connection at work (42%) was similar to those with a connection at home. However, the former group increased less rapidly - and last year it already decreased again: the (first) peak was passed at 47%, and now only 44% are able to use the network at work - as was the case in summer 2001. It is possible that this development has to do with the redundancies in the banking and service sector. Regular use at work is only increasing slightly: in 2001, 20 percent were regular surfers, in 2003 it was 25 percent. What is interesting, however, is the use of the Internet at work by gender: at the beginning of 2001, 21 percent of men and 11 percent of women surfed the Internet almost daily at work, whereas by mid-2003 this figure had risen to 34 percent of men and 20 percent of women. These changes are more pronounced here than in the private sphere.
German-speaking Swiss surf more
Broken down by language region, the rough results are as follows
Picture: 62% of the Swiss-German population aged 15 and over were online in 2003, and Internet users have increased by 9% since 2001. In French-speaking Switzerland, 55 percent of the population used the Internet, 6 percent more than three years ago. And in Ticino, Internet users account for 38 percent of the population, three percent more than in 2001.
According to MMXI Switzerland, the domains that are visited most frequently throughout Switzerland are Bluewin.ch (1.259 million unique visitors per month) and Google.ch (1.219 million). The most frequently used media sites in German-speaking Switzerland were Blick.ch (164,000 visitors per month) and SFDRS.ch (134,000), in French-speaking Switzerland TSR.ch (45,000) and Lematin.ch (29,000) and in Ticino RTSI.ch (7,000) and Corriere.it and Rai.it (2,000 each).
A third study by the SRG research service examined so-called streaming usage - listening to the radio and watching TV via the Internet. To this end, Konso conducted 1900 interviews throughout Switzerland between January and February 2004. The result: among Swiss Internet users, the consumption of radio and TV content via the Internet is not very widespread. In German-speaking Switzerland, 76 percent of Internet users state that they have never streamed, in French-speaking Switzerland the figure is 80 percent and in Ticino 81 percent. In all regions, a lack of interest is the main reason for not streaming, but it is striking that the proportion of users who were previously unaware of this option or do not know how to do it is far higher in German-speaking Switzerland (24%) than in French-speaking Switzerland (10%) or Ticino (7%).
Of those who stream, most only listen to the radio at home and a small percentage only watch TV. However, 4 percent of German-speaking Swiss, 5 percent of French-speaking Swiss and 1 percent of Ticino users state that they stream both radio and TV content. In all regions, it is mainly young men up to the age of 24 who use streaming media content, with young women not far behind. Interestingly, in Ticino and French-speaking Switzerland, it is primarily women who stream TV content and hardly any men.
Radiocontrol data being checkedOnline access to the 2004 Radiocontrol data is expected to be available again at the end of April. The online data has been unavailable since March 12. The reason: the responsible institute, IHA-GfK, made a mistake when processing the data. When extrapolating the correctly and completely measured data, the institute did not take into account the transition from the previously proportional to the disproportional sample, which led to incorrect figures. This is now being corrected and checked. (mk)
Research Service unchanged for the time beingManuel Dähler, the new Head of the SRG Research Service (FD) since 1 March 2004, noted that the FD organization and
-structure will remain untouched until the new RTVA has been definitively adopted. Only then will it be clear what the legislator actually wants. The version of the RTVA approved by the National Council wants to hive off the FD from the SRG and transfer it to a foundation. Last year, the SRG proposed a merger of FD and Publica Data, causing unrest. The outgoing Head of FD Matthias Steinmann looks back on his 35 years at FD and thanked, among others, the SRG Directorate General, which initiated around six investigations and hearings against him and "mostly" gave him quite a lot of freedom. (mk)
Manuel Dähler (l.) takes over from Matthias Steinmann.
Markus Knöpfli
