TURKISH Cypriots are the biggest satellite television junkies in the EU and have more wide-screen televisions than their wealthier Greek Cypriot compatriots, according to a new Eurobarometer survey
“As far as satellite television is concerned, it seems to be a particularly common way for providing households with television in the Turkish Cypriot Community, with
69 per cent of households receiving television through a satellite dish,” the survey said.
The survey does not say whether this is due to a lack of choice on Turkish Cypriot terrestrial channels. Only 41 per cent of Turkish Cypriots have television aerials compared to 95 per cent of Greek Cypriots.
However, only eight per cent of Greek Cypriots have satellite, 14 per cent have cable television, and 11 per cent digital television, along with the standard terrestrial channels.
Turkish Cypriots also have a relatively high usage of digital television at 14 per cent, but there are zero cable providers in the north, according to the survey.
The lowest level of satellite use in the EU is in Greece, with only three per cent, while Greece has the highest percentage of aerial use at 99 per cent. Only three per cent of households in Greece use satellite.
“There are some interesting discrepancies between countries. In countries where households receive television through an aerial or a satellite, less households pay for television channels than in countries where television is received mainly through a cable television network,” said the barometer report.
But not only do Turkish Cypriots enjoy more satellite television, they also do it in style with a proliferation of wide-screen televisions.
Nearly 20 per cent of Turkish Cypriots have both a standard and a wide-screen television, compared to 13 per cent of Greek Cypriots who have both. The EU average is 17 per cent.
Also, 77 per cent of Turkish Cypriots have a standard television only, compared to 90 per cent of Greek Cypriots. Four per cent of Turkish Cypriots have wide-screen only, while one per cent of Greek Cypriot homes fall under this category.
“Hungarian, Greeks, Cypriots and Slovenians are the most likely to only have a standard television among households in the EU27,” said the report.
“Correspondingly, the proportions of households having only a wide-screen television are among the lowest in Europe in these countries.”
It said the highest rates of households having only wide-screen and no standard televisions were in Luxembourg with 13 per cent, Austria 12 per cent, and Belgium and Finland both 11 per cent.
In the UK and Ireland, the combination of having both wide-screen and standard televisions seems to be more common than in other EU27 countries, with 37 per cent of British and 33 per cent of Irish households having both kinds of televisions.
A clear majority of European households have a standard television but no wide-screen television while relatively few of them seem to have only a wide-screen television.
Households in Hungary, Greece and Slovenia are the least likely to have a wide-screen television.
