Televisions (without Internet Access)
Only 3.3% of respondents have never owned a television (without Internet access), representing the second most saturated market of any of the 16 devices studied, behind only desktop computers in a Researchscape online survey of 1,000 consumers.
Purchase Interest
47.3% of respondents were “very interested” or “extremely interested” in purchasing a traditional TV set. People interested in traditional TVs are most likely to also be interested in portable DVD players (0.190 correlation), laptops (0.185 correlation) and video game consoles (0.129 correlation).
Traditional TV sets are a category that doesn’t benefit much from device substitution: 1.4% of respondents would replace a broken device from a different category (most frequently, a smart TV) with a traditional TV set.
7.9% of respondents without a traditional TV set said it was the device they didn’t own that they were most interested in purchasing. Of all respondents, 1.7% identified traditional TV sets as the device they were most interested in purchasing, the 6th lowest interest level. Traditional TVs did not receive too much comment. Why do people want them?
- To watch shows (mentioned by 3 respondents):
- “To be able to watch television shows.”
- “I do not have a TV, and it would be nice to be able to watch the news while I cook.”
- Current device is outdated or broken (mentioned by 3 respondents):
- “My TV is too small.”
- “There’s sometimes electrical interference.”
- “Old one is kaput.”
- Use as large computer screen for watching media (mentioned by 2 respondents):
- “I’d like to buy a TV so that I can hook it up to my computer and enjoy my media on a nice big screen.”
- “I am interested in buying this device because I can then hook up my laptop computer to it and watch media on a larger screen.”
- Other noteworthy comments:
- “Already own other electronics that need a TV to work.”
- “So I can watch TV and play game console.”
- “I will need a television when I get cable in the coming months.”
Current Ownership
78.5% of respondents currently own a traditional TV set, the highest ownership rate of the 16 devices studied.
7.3% no longer use the device, giving it the fourth lowest rate of lapsed usage (compared to an average of 16.3%). It has the fifth highest rate of frequent use: 73.8% of owners reported using their traditional TV set frequently.
In a separate survey of 400 consumers, we asked respondents a hypothetical question: which devices would they purchase if they had lost all of their devices in a robbery and new purchases were covered by insurance? 48% of current owners were “very interested” or “extremely interested” in repurchasing a traditional TV set.
10.8% of owners said their TV set was the device that they were least interested in replacing if it broke.
Past Ownership
18.2% of respondents have owned a traditional TV set in the past but no longer do so, the seventh highest rate of past ownership. This represents 18.8% of the group of current and former owners.