The Central and Eastern Europe Media Consumption Report 2022

Key Takeaways

• Smart products are slowly picking up steam. Turkey shows an affinity for smart home products; Poland prefers game consoles; Romania leads in smart TV ownership; the Czech Republic sports smartwatches; but Russia lags in overall smart device ownership.

• Central and Eastern Europe have lower rates of video and audio streaming in comparison with other regions. Internet users here dedicate the least amount of time to online TV and streaming services.

• More local content could increase VOD usage. Internet users in Central and Eastern Europe may increase their video streaming if services like Netflix produce more content tailored to the region.

Leading Ahead

The internet users of Central and Eastern Europe are plugged into their smartphones and social media.

• Respondents spent 1 hour, 8 minutes (1:08) more per day on mobile devices than those in Western Europe during H1 2022. Internet users in North America, on average, spent 23 minutes less on mobile devices than their Central and Eastern European counterparts.

• Smartphones are almost ubiquitous in Central and Eastern Europe, with a penetration rate of 97.1%. Not only do smartphones have a strong hold over the region, but feature phones boast the highest penetration here (12.4%), likely due to their lower price point. (That compares with 4.2% of internet users in North America who owned a feature phone, and 4.5% for Western Europe.)

• Social media and messaging services consume a significant portion of the day. Respondents in Central and Eastern Europe spent 2:26 per day with these services, outpacing the Western European and North American averages by 38 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively.

• Given the region’s fixation with mobile devices, it is not surprising that its social media penetration rate, at 98.4%, outpaces slightly those of North America and Western Europe. Turkey leads the region, with almost full penetration at 99.6% in H1 2022, followed by Romania, at 99.5%.

Trailing Behind

Smart products at higher price points are slower to pick up steam.

• Overall, smartwatch adoption in Central and Eastern Europe lagged North America’s by 6.9 percentage points, at 18.8% in H1 2022. Instead, internet users here opt for products at cheaper price points—smart wristbands are more popular in Central and Eastern Europe, owned by 16.5%, than in North America and Western Europe (12.3% and 15.2%, respectively).

• Gaming and smart TV products are owned by few, mostly those belonging to high-income households. Less than one-fifth (17.6%) of respondents in Central and Eastern Europe owned a game console in H1 2022, versus nearly two-fifths (39.8%) of those in North America. Likewise, North America’s rate of smart TV ownership was 13.3 percentage points higher than Central and Eastern Europe’s 43.0%.

On a global scale, streaming video and audio content is least popular with internet users in Central and Eastern Europe.

• On average, they dedicated 1:08 per day to online TV and streaming services—the lowest level in the GWI results. North America’s adoption of this content is also higher, by 4.7 percentage points in H1 2022, than that of Central and Eastern Europe.

• Central and Eastern Europe is in last place globally when it comes to streaming music, with respondents spending a little over an hour (1:11) on it per day. By comparison, those in North America streamed music for an average of 1:54 per day in H1 2022.

• Less time goes to watching TV, whatever the platform. Internet users in Central and Eastern Europe spent 1:19 less with both broadcast and online TV than their North American counterparts. In North America and Western Europe, subscription VOD (SVOD) and on-demand TV are outpacing live TV in adoption, but audiences in Central and Eastern Europe still prefer live TV.

Smart products have gained selective attention in the region.

• In smart home products, Turkey and Poland take the lead, with penetration rates of 18.1% and 12.4%, respectively, in H1 2022. The same two countries lead in virtual reality (VR) device ownership, but their adoption of smart products is significantly lower than that of the US.

• Less than half (43.0%) of the region’s online population owned a smart TV. Romania leads in smart TV penetration, at 60.8% in H1 2022, followed by Poland, at 57.1%. Romania’s strong uptake of smart TVs correlates with the fact that its internet users are the most likely to watch TV, at 91.8% in Q1 2022. That outpaced the North American average of 88.0%.

The region has comparatively lower VOD viewership.

• Within the region, Turkey boasts the most time spent with online TV and streaming services, followed by Romania, at 1:25 and 1:14 per day in H1 2022, respectively. On the flip side, Romania leads in broadcast TV viewing, at 2:40 per day, outpacing both Turkey and the Czech Republic by 15 minutes in H1 2022.

• After Romania, the Czech Republic and Turkey have the next highest averages for broadcast TV viewing, each at 2:25 per day. But internet users in the Czech Republic spend the least amount of time watching online TV and streaming services, at 55 minutes per day in H1 2022.

• SVOD and on-demand TV viewership is lowest in Russia, at 83.5% in H1 2022. In Russia, SVOD viewership may experience changes given that streaming services, including Netflix, suspended operations in the country after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022.

Czech Republic

• The Czech Republic has the lowest smartphone penetration rate in the region, at 94.7% in H1 2022, but it also has the highest penetration of PCs, at 84.1%. Its PC ownership is 15.1 percentage points higher than the US rate.

• Time spent on mobile devices here is the lowest in Central and Eastern Europe, at 2:43 per day. Smartphones are most popular with internet users ages 25 to 44, surpassing 96% penetration in this group.

• Internet users in the Czech Republic also spend the least amount of time streaming video and audio content in the region. Daily time spent with online TV and video streaming (55 minutes) is lower than the regional average (1:08). And music streaming time spent came in at 47 minutes per day, compared with 1:11 for the region.

• One of the few categories that the Czech Republic leads within the region is smartwatch penetration, at 27.8% in H1 2022, slightly higher than the US average. Internet users ages 16 to 24 and those with high incomes are responsible for wider smartwatch adoption, with penetration rates of about 35%.

Poland

• Internet users here own game consoles at the highest rate in Central and Eastern Europe, at 38.7%—but this still lags the US average (40.0%). Although respondents in Poland were more likely to own game consoles in H1 2022, those in Turkey spent 12 more minutes on gaming per day.

• Poland falls behind the Czech Republic in smartwatch ownership, at 27.1% of the country’s online population. But internet users in Poland are adopting the cheaper alternative of smart wristbands at a quicker rate (25.1% in H1 2022) than the rest of the region.

• Time spent with PCs and tablets averaged 3:26 daily in H1 2022, dropping by 36 minutes from H1 2021 and reaching the lowest level since 2019. Although time spent with these devices is waning, Poland ranks second for PC penetration in the region, at 81.4% in H1 2022, following the Czech Republic.

• Almost two-fifths (38.7%) of respondents owned a game console, in comparison with the regional average of 17.6%. Predictably, nearly half (47.7%) of the online population ages 16 to 24 had a game console. Gaming is prevalent in Poland, given that major game developer CD Projekt Red is based in Warsaw.

• Smart home product ownership jumped from 6.2% in H1 2020 to 12.4% in H1 2022, due to younger generations adopting smart technologies.

Romania

• Adoption of most smart products in Romania is lagging. Smart home products are not gaining traction, experiencing only about a 1-percentage-point increase in ownership from H1 2021 to H1 2022 (when it reached 10.2%).

• But Romania has the highest smart TV ownership in the region with penetration of 60.8%. Among high-income respondents, almost three-quarters (74.9%) owned a smart TV.

Russia

• Russia has the lowest ownership rates for most smart products, partially due to several Western tech companies suspending business in the country. Only 33.7% of internet users owned a smart TV in H1 2022, and 11.2% owned a smartwatch. The trend may reverse if consumers here gain more access to smart products from Chinese companies.

• Audio streaming experienced a sharp decline of 12.0 percentage points year over year. Across all age and socioeconomic groups, digital audio lost traction in H1 2022, again due in part to major services like Spotify pulling out of Russia.

• Broadcast TV lost a few minutes of viewing time from H1 2021, whereas time spent watching online TV and streaming services reached an average of 1:00 per day. Female internet users watch traditional TV at a higher rate (86.0% in Q1 2022) than their male counterparts (76.2%). This activity is most popular among internet users ages 45 to 54, at 89.4%.

Turkey

• Smartphones are pervasive in Turkey, reaching almost full (98.1%) penetration in H1 2022—the highest rate in Central and Eastern Europe. Within the region, internet users in Turkey spend the most time on mobile devices, averaging a whopping 4:28 per day. That’s an increase of 22 minutes since H1 2019, outpacing the regional total by 39 minutes in H1 2022.

• Turkey leads the region in VOD viewing time, with respondents tuning in to online TV and streaming services for 1:25 per day in H1 2022.

• Internet users in Turkey also stream music more than in any other country in Central and Eastern Europe, spending 1:37 per day doing so in H1 2022.