Goodbye to the TV, in the EU, TV is streaming

Brussels –TV or no TV? In the EU, how we spend our evenings and watch programs and content on the small screen has changed. Whether it’s a movie, a series, a sporting event, or a talk show, it’s all through the Internet and streaming, broadcasting by electronic means. Data updated to 2022, now nearly six out of ten Europeans, or two out of three (65 percent), say they use the Internet for television.

Forget old devices then: the new TV goes through the laptop and its screen, or a big screen connected to the computer, obviously with the appropriate differences.  Eurostat notes that there are countries now converted to streaming, such as Finland and the Netherlands (respectively, with 93 percent and 90 percent of the total population resorting to the new mode of television) to instead still very traditional States such as Romania and Bulgaria, where the ‘religion’ remains cable TV (streaming in these two countries is stuck at 34 percent and 40 percent of those in front of a screen, respectively).

Italy is no exception, although there is a clear generational divide. Men and women aged between 16 and 34 watch TV on the computer, resorting to online broadcasting sites and programs (85 percent of the age group), while older people keep their dear old TV set. Technology is not a life companion for those over 65, who in Italy are the most numerous in the EU. Only three out of 10 seniors (32 percent) wanted to try what ‘streaming’ means.