One in seven Canadians say they’re either somewhat or very likely to quit their TV service and opt for free or cheaper alternatives, according to a new survey.
The Media Technology Monitor surveyed 4,009 anglophone Canadians between October and December for a report on some top technology trends.
About 16% of the poll respondents said they were giving serious consideration to cutting the cord – cancelling a TV subscription in favour of free over-the-air signals or streaming content online.
Members of Generation X, ages 34 to 47, were the most likely to be considering life as a cord cutter, followed by gen-Yers, ages 25 to 33, and parents.
About 42% of the respondents said they watched TV online in the past month, which was up 10% from the previous year. The most common reason cited for watching content on the web was convenience.
The numbers of mobile video viewers almost doubled since 2012 with 40% of the poll respondents saying they were streaming content on their phone. Owners of Samsung Galaxy smartphones and Apple iPhones were most likely to be using their device as a TV screen, while less than half as many BlackBerry users said they streamed online video.
Researchers also asked whether the poll respondents liked to binge watch and half said they’ve viewed at least three episodes of a show consecutively in the past year.
Almost two-thirds of 18- to 34-year-old viewers said they liked to watch TV episodes back-to-back-to-back while only about one in four of the respondents over 65 enjoyed binge watching.
The telephone survey was conducted by Forum Research and the results are considered to be accurate within 1.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
