Swiss residents spend less time watching TV

Television consumption in Switzerland continues to drop, but there are considerable regional differences.

Last year, people on average spent two hours every day watching television, according to the latest figures published by the Federal Statistics Office.

The decrease is most evident among the group of under-29-year-olds in the German-speaking part of the country. The consumption dropped from more than 60 minutes on average five years ago to 46 minutes in 2018.

In the French-speaking region, the drop was less pronounced – six minutes on average.

However, in the Italian-speaking region, it rose to more than 80 minutes per day from 64 minutes over the past five years.

Regional differences also define the TV consumption of those over 60. Statistics show a range of 3.15 hours to nearly four hours among the different language groups.

People in all the three language regions watch primarily channels from neighbouring countries, according to officials.

The programmes of the public Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (the parent company of swissinfo.ch) in the four national languages – German, French, Italian and Romansh – captured audience shares ranging from 29% to 32% last year.