According to a survey, one in four people in Germany has said goodbye to traditional television and no longer watches via broadcast, cable or satellite.
Only 72% of German residents reported turning on linear TV at least once a month, according to the "Screens in Motion" study conducted by Burda Verlag and published on Thursday.
In 2023, that figure stood at 80%.
"That's huge and, above all, there is now another short-term drop of 8 percentage points," Marion Sperlich, the person responsible for the Screens in Motion study, told dpa.
However, screen consumption itself is still quite high, with 84% of respondents stated in the survey that they use some combination of video streaming, media libraries or pay TV services.
The market researchers noticed an "astonishing shift" in the answers as to where people inform themselves about current topics such as politics, the economy and world events, said Sperlich.
"Public TV channels are the main source of information on current events for all respondents," Sperlich said, referring to Germany's network of public broadcasters.
"However, this has fallen sharply, from 56% to 46% in just two years," she said.
Big differences can now be seen between age groups, with public broadcasters remaining the main information source for 65% of respondents aged 50 and over.
"Among the very young up to the age of 29, the figure is 25%. They turn to social media much more frequently for the latest information. This includes Facebook, but also Instagram and Tiktok," Sperlich said.
The survey asked a representative sample of the population in Germany aged 14 and over with online access.