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Title KCC ANNOUNCES 2024 BROADCAST MEDIA CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR SURVEY RESULTS
Date 2025-01-08 Read 2127
Smartphones and over-the-top media services continue to expand their influence.
Short-form video content emerges as the most engaging format among smartphone users.
Rise in single-person households drives declining television viewership and increasing use of smartphones and over-the-top media platforms.
Korean viewers prefer Korean-language subtitles even when watching Korean-language content.

On December 30, 2024, Monday, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), led by Acting Commissioner Kim Tae-kyu, in collaboration with the Korea Association for ICT Promotion (KAIT), under President Yoo Young-sang, released the findings of the “2024 Broadcast Media Consumption Behavior Survey.” This comprehensive study provides essential statistics on media consumption patterns and evolving public perceptions of broadcast media.

The survey, designated as an official national statistics program (No. 164002) since 2000, has been conducted annually. The 2024 edition encompassed face-to-face interviews with 8,316 male and female respondents aged 13 and above, drawn from 5,645 households across all 17 administrative districts of South Korea.

Key takeaways of the 2024 survey are as follows:

The survey highlights a growing divergence in media consumption habits, with television usage steadily declining while smartphones continue to dominate as the primary device for accessing content.
Television viewership of five or more days per week* declined from 71.4% in 2023 to 69.1% in 2024, while smartphone-based media consumption** increased from 91.4% to 92.2% during the same period.
* Television consumption declined across all age groups except those in their 20s and 30s, with viewing time correlating positively with age.
** Smartphone-based media consumption of five or more days per week maintains over 90% for age groups under 60, while those 70 and above show 64.4% adoption.
Among frequent smartphone users who engage five or more days per week, content preferences are distributed as follows: short-form video (41.8%), OTT services (39.4%) and live streaming (26.2%).
Daily media dependency demonstrates a significant shift. Smartphone dependency reached 75.3% in 2024, marking a 5.3%p increase from 70.0% in 2023. In contrast, television dependency fell to 22.6% in 2024, declining by 4.6%p from 27.2% in 2023, widening the gap between the two media channels to a 3.3-fold difference.
Smartphone adoption as the primary media platform continues to grow across all age demographics. Younger users aged 10s to 30s demonstrate adoption rates exceeding 90%, while those in their 40s and 50s hold at over 80%. Notably, smartphone adoption is expanding among older generations aged 60 and above.
※ Aged 60s: 46.6% (2022) → 48.0% (2023) → 60.7% (2024)
Aged 70 and above: 14.4% (2022) → 19.6% (2023) → 27.2% (2024)

Television penetration continues its gradual decline, while smartphone adoption approaches market saturation, driven by increased usage among older demographics.
In 2024, the national household television penetration decreased slightly to 94.9%, down from 95.3% in 2023. Among single-person households, the figure was notably lower at 88.9%, compared to the national household average of 94.9%. Data also reveals a negative correlation between age and television penetration.
Smartphone penetration reached 95.3% in 2024, marking a 0.5%p increase from 94.8% in 2023. Notable growth occurred among aged 70 and above, with a substantial 6.5%p year-over-year increase. Wearable smartwatch adoption showed steady growth, rising from 8.9% in 2022 to 12.0% in 2023, and further increasing to 12.9% in 2024.

While television viewing hours have consistently decreased, smartphone usage hours have shown the opposite trend. This may be influenced by the growing number of single-person households.
※ Percentage of single-person household (Source: Statistics Korea): 33.4% (2021) → 34.5% (2022) → 35.5% (2023)
For all users, the average daily television viewing time* dropped to 2 hours and 27 minutes in 2024, recording a 2-minute decrease from the previous year. In contrast, daily smartphone screen time** rose to 2 hours and 6 minutes in 2024, marking a 6-minute increase from 2023.
* Average daily television viewing time of all users: 2 hours and 36 minutes (2022) → 2 hours and 29 minutes (2023) → 2 hours and 27 minutes (2024)
** Average daily smartphone screen time of all users: 1 hour and 52 minutes (2022) → 2 hours (2023) → 2 hours and 6 minutes (2024)
In 2024, the average daily television viewing time* for single-person household users decreased to 2 hours and 15 minutes, reflecting a 12-minute decline from the previous year. In contrast, daily smartphone screen time** increased to 2 hours and 27 minutes, showing a 10-minute rise compared to 2023.
* Average daily television viewing time of single-person household users: 2 hours and 38 minutes (2022) → 2 hours and 27 minutes (2023) → 2 hours and 15 minutes (2024)
** Average daily smartphone screen time of single-person household users: 1 hour and 59 minutes (2022) → 2 hours and 17 minutes (2023) → 2 hours and 27 minutes (2024)
In 2024, 91.2% of users accessed OTT platform services via smartphones, marking a 4.9%p increase from 86.3% in 2023. The rise of on-demand content services drove increased smartphone screen time.
On average, users spent 1 hour and 10 minutes daily on OTT platforms*. Notably, single-person households recorded a higher average of 1 hour and 23 minutes**, reflecting a relatively longer engagement compared to other user groups.
* Average daily OTT service screen time of all users: 1 hour and 1 minute (2022) → 1 hour and 7 minutes (2023) → 1 hour and 10 minutes (2024)
** Average daily OTT service screen time of single-person household users: 1 hour and 11 minutes (2022) → 1 hour and 21 minutes (2023) → 1 hour and 23 minutes (2024)

Overall OTT service consumption rate* continues to rise steadily, reaching 79.2% in 2024. The proportion of paid users** is also showing consistent growth.
* Percentage of OTT subscribers: 72.0% (2022) → 77.0% (2023) → 79.2% (2024)
** Percentage of paid OTT subscribers: 55.9% (2022) → 57.0% (2023) → 59.9% (2024)
The continuous growth in OTT service subscrptions is primarily driven by the exceptionally high subscrption rate of 90% among users aged 10s to 30s. This upward trend is further supported by steadily increasing subscrption rates among users aged 40s and above*.
* (Aged 40s) 86.9% (2022) → 88.5% (2023) → 90.7% (2024), (Aged 50s) 70.2% (2022) → 81.0% (2023) → 85.9% (2024), (Aged 60s) 54.4% (2022) → 61.0% (2023) → 66.7% (2024), (Aged 70 and above) 16.3% (2022) → 23.2% (2023) → 27.1% (2024)
OTT subscriber preferences show a strong tilt toward short-form videos (70.7%) and platform-exclusive original series (54.3%). Notably, short-form content engagement rose significantly from 58.1% in 2023.
Ad-supported plans are utilized by 18.2% of Netflix and Tving subscribers.
Ad-supported plans are particularly popular among users in their 30s, with a subscrption rate of 21.4%. Additionally, 64.5% of these budget-conscious subscribers express an intent to maintain their current subscrption plans.

Pay television subscrptions continue their downward trajectory, driven by lower adoption among single-person households and increasing migration to OTT platforms.
Overall household pay television subscrption rate* dropped to 91.9% in 2024, with single-person households** reporting a significantly lower rate of 83.4%, well below the national average.
* Overall household pay television subscrption: 92.7% (2022) → 92.5% (2023) → 91.9% (2024)
** Single-person household pay television subscrption: 85.3% (2022) → 83.9% (2023) → 83.4% (2024)
Among pay television services, internet protocol television (IPTV) subscrptions* saw a slight increase between 2023 and 2024, while digital cable television subscrptions** experienced a comparatively steeper decline during the same period. Additionally, video-on-demand (VOD) services continued their downward trend, decreasing to 18.3% in 2024 from 19.5% in 2023.
* Internet protocol television subscrption: 52.1% (2022) → 51.7% (2023) → 52.1% (2024)
** Digital cable television subscrption: 38.0% (2022) → 37.3% (2023) → 34.1% (2024)

The ongoing shift towards flexible viewing options has led to a notable change in user media consumption habits, with a transition from traditional live television to on-demand streaming services, such as OTT and VOD platforms.
For the 7-day media consumption, live television* still accounts for 86.5% of viewership, although this figure represents a decline compared to the previous year. In contrast, on-demand streaming** adoption has risen to 45.2% in 2024.
* Live television viewers: 91.1% (2022) → 87.9% (2023) → 86.5% (2024)
** On-demand streaming viewers: 42.6% (2022) → 38.5% (2023) → 45.2% (2024)
Traditional television sets remain dominant for live content, capturing 82.2% of viewers. For on-demand streaming, users show balanced device preferences, with smartphones (25.4%) and television sets (23.8%) neck-and-neck. While live television viewing on traditional sets dropped 2.2%, on-demand streaming viewership surged by 7.5%.
* Live show device preferences: (Television) 84.4% (2023) → 82.2% (2024), (Smartphone) 9.2% (2023) → 9.4% (2024)
** On-demand streaming device preferences: (Television) 16.3% (2023) → 23.8% (2024), (Smartphone) 22.2% (2023) → 25.4% (2024)
Among television viewers, the preference for Korean subtitles, even when watching Korean-language content, has increased from 16.8% in 2023 to 20.6% in 2024.
Similarly, 29.4% of OTT users prefer Korean subtitles for locally produced content.
The complete “2024 Broadcast Media Consumption Behavior Survey” report will be available on the Korea Communications Commission website (kcc.go.kr) and Mediastat portal (mediastat.or.kr). Additionally, microdata sets will be publicly accessible through the Mediastat website.



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The Korea Communications Commission
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