Perspectives of Television Use in the Digital Media Environment

The numerous technical possibilities in the digitalisation of production, of distribution and storage of media content, the increasing significance of computer-based applications and services accompanying, and the interplay between various media and communication services, as yet only discernable in its beginnings, are all opening up scope for quite different scenarios in future television. In the public discussion, the television set is partly treated somewhat as a fossil, which will be replaced very soon by computers, mobiles and other multifunctional terminals. Then again, other people prophecy a great future for the television set – if it can integrate the essential computer functions and simultaneously enable access to online offerings and to the Internet.

The new technical options and, not least, a social change are making it difficult to judge users’ behaviour in the future. This results in particular problems of orientation for television providers, who depend on adapting smartly to imminent changes in users’ behaviour.

Against this background, the Hans Bredow Institute has been commissioned by the ZDF to provide an expert opinion, which deals comprehensively with the current developments in the television market. Various aspects of users’ behaviour have been compiled on the basis of corresponding findings from previous studies and have been collated so that an overall picture of the current development emerges and of the relevant trends becoming apparent in it.