In total there are approximately 17.9 million German households, i.e. about 45 percent, watching TV digitally. 21.8 million households still receive analogue TV signals. These are the findings of a representative survey conducted on behalf of the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM). The changeover to digital TV has far-reaching consequences for commerce and the producers of consumer electronics.
Satellite technology is crucial in promoting digitalization: 10.3 million households receive digital TV via satellite. On the other hand there are almost 6 million households receiveing digital cable TV thereby gaining access to the a large range of TV channels.
On the other hand, the number of households with terrestrial digital TV (DB TV) is rather small and amounts to 1.5 million which is just 8 percent of all households with digital TV. However, in the category of terrestrial TV the share of households receiving digitally is relatively high and amounts to 77 percent. The reason for this is the fact that in almost all conurbations analogue TV channels are switched off. Almost 100.000 households receive TV channels over the internet (IP-TV). Thanks to the so-called reverse channel capability it is particularly easy for these TV viewers to make use of interactive additional services and on-demand offers. 