The domestic television market underwent a characteristic transformation in the new millennium due to technological development, changes in media consumption habits and the appearance of digital platforms. Since 1997, we have been spending more and more time in front of screens, according to research by the National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH). In the last two and a half decades, the TV viewing audience has aged faster than the Hungarian population in general: in 2022, those sitting in front of the screen were on average ten years older than the average population, while twenty-five years ago this difference was only four years.
Today, television still plays the main role in spending free time: in 2021, our compatriots over the age of fifteen spent nearly three and a half hours surfing the Internet, while they sat in front of the television for more than five hours. At the same time, television viewing habits have changed over the past two decades due to the emergence of on-demand media services and video-sharing platforms. Since the beginning of the instrumented television audience measurement, Hungarian residents spent almost a sixth of their day watching TV, and, during the COVID-19 epidemic, this ratio increased even more, so in 2020 they spent a fifth of an average day doing this activity.
Although the daily consumption time has increased from 3 hours 42 minutes to 4 hours 49 minutes, more than one million viewers have disappeared from the TV screens in recent decades. It is primarily characteristic of the members of the older generation that they sit in front of the television sets a lot: in the last 25 years, their daily TV consumption time has increased by almost three hours. Due to this, the total time spent watching TV increased by more than one hour for the population over four years of age. Hungarians watch more TV than the European average: in 2021, 70 percent of the European population and 73 percent of Hungarians spent their time in front of the screen daily.
Interestingly, the TV-watching population aged faster and at a greater rate than Hungarian society as a whole. In 2022, the audience sitting in front of the screen was on average ten years older than the average population, while twenty-five years ago this difference was only four years. The average age of the population has risen from 38 to 43 in the last two and a half decades, while the average age of TV viewers has increased from 42 to 53.
In terms of the age composition of the viewers and the choice of channel, in 2022 the followers of ATV and Hír TV were the oldest, with an average age of 67. In the case of the leading commercial channels, the audience of the RTL group was three years younger than that of TV2. Viacom’s seven channels have the youngest audience, which is not surprising, since its portfolio also includes Nickelodeon, Nicktoons and Nick JR.
Looking back at the last 25 years, it can also be established that there are genres that have worn out or even disappeared completely from the program offers: these include, for example, theater broadcasts or circus and variety shows. While in 2015 we could still see 108 plays on the offer of seven channels, in 2020 only m5 undertook the distribution of this segment of culture, although by 2022 the number of theater broadcasts had dropped to a fifth. Also on the verge of disappearing are non-fiction programs made specifically for children, such as informational magazines, religious programs and sports competitions. Among the most watched programs, the place of films was first taken over by various non-fiction programs, then by series, while nowadays news and information programs have a dominant position.
The expansion of the range of channels is based on technological development, which enables media providers to make their services available either on cable channels, via satellite transmission, or even through digital platforms. With the development of broadcasting techniques, the number of available services will probably continue to expand.
(NMHH)
