In 2015, Canadians consumed 70 hours per week of measured digital and traditional media, up from 68 hours per week last year, according to the annual Canadian Media Usage Trends (CMUST) report from the IAB and PHD.
It may seem hard to believe that consumers could find any more time to devote to media and, in fact, CMUST says the total amount of time Canadians spend plunked in front of a screen hasn’t changed all that much. But we’re adding more screens to the hours we set aside each day.
The report estimates that the amount of time Canadians spend simultaneously watching TV and connecting to the internet via a desktop or mobile device grew by 2.7 hours per week compared to last year. That means we now consume media on multiple screens for 14.7 hours each week, or 50% of the total time we spend watching TV. Last year multiscreening took up only 41% of TV time.
Rob Young, PHD’s senior vice-president in charge of analytics and the study’s lead author, said in a presentation at the IAB metrics conference Thursday that multiscreening has driven a dramatic rise in overall media hours since 2001, when Canadians consumed, on average, 56 hours per week across all media. “It pretty well accounts for all of the increases we’ve seen in full media time over the last 14 years,” he said.
Not surprisingly, most of the extra hours added in 2015 came from Canadians tuning into digital more often during existing TV time rather than adding more TV time. Per ComScore, digital usage across desktop and non-video mobile was up to 20.7 hours per week this year, compared to 17 hours per week in 2014. TV time, by comparison, was virtually flat, at 29 hours per week this year, versus 29.3 hours per week in 2014.
Most of that multiscreen time came from mobile rather than desktop. Non-video smartphone and tablet usage overall jumped 39% to 12.1 hours per week in 2015. (The study separates out non-video mobile content because of the continued challenges of mobile video usage measurement in Canada.)
Time spent on mobile video, OTT may be even larger
In the second part of the study, CMUST looked into areas of digital usage that can’t yet be reliably measured. For example, ComScore can’t measure mobile video yet because it hasn’t tagged enough publishers, and there’s currently no way to track usage from IoT devices like wearables and connected cars. But mobile video is also just one example of the continuing challenges of measuring digital media. For instance, over-the-top viewing on connected TV devices like Roku and Apple TV also aren’t reliably measured in Canada, though Numeris plans to release a fall TV diary next year that will include Netflix numbers.
According to Young, as much as 40% of total internet usage isn’t measured, but PHD and ComScore can estimate what total internet usage looks like and those estimates are way up this year. Last year CMUST projected total “unearthed” digital time, including both measured and estimated channels, at 27.8 hours per week. This year it’s estimating 36.4 hours per week of total digital usage, bringing total media consumption up to a stunning 85.8 hours per week.
The biggest bump was in mobile video, including both tablet and smartphone. The study estimated Canadians now watch for around 8.3 hours per week on average. Last year, it put that number at six hours per week. A similar bump was projected for OTT, which rose to 3.3 hours per week from 2.5 hours per week.
If those estimates are accurate, they paint an even starker picture of the so-called mobile investment gap, Young said. Although mobile now makes up an estimated 23% of overall media time, advertisers are still only spending 8% of their media budgets on it. Internet video sees similar level of underdevelopment, accounting for an estimated 17% of all time but only 2% of spend.
Young pointed to several well-understood factors behind underinvestment, like the lack of mobile-friendly websites in Canada and the creative restrictions of small mobile banners. “[Mobile] will probably continue to be underdeveloped for some time, as marketers catch up with consumer habits,” he said.
Netflix reaches more than half of Millennials
According to Media Technology Monitor research from spring 2015, Netflix now reaches 53% of anglophone Canadians 18-34. Most of the subscribers within that age group (87%) watch Netflix at least once weekly.
Millennials tended to watch Netflix via desktop or OTT connected devices: 25% said they use an internet-connected set-top box, while 28% said they use desktop. Only 10% watched on tablet, and 12% on smartphone.
Netflix saw slightly lower reach (38%) among adults 18+, but a similar number of subscribers who watched at least once a week (82%).
The increasing popularity of Netflix and other OTT services has contributed to a surge in “tuned out” cord-cutters that don’t watch TV on either cable or off-air antenna. While just 10% of Canadians 18+ didn’t watch any kind of live TV last year, that number rose to 14% this year. Including “cord-nevers,” which MTM defines as people who watch off-air TV via antenna but not by cable, the total proportion of 18+ not consuming conventional television was up to 19%.
Young noted the number was much smaller for Quebec, at 11%, which he attributed to the province’s long-standing pick-and-pay program. Unbundling has helped increase consumer satisfaction and slowed the move away from conventional TV, he said. Quebec’s population profile also skews slightly older than the rest of Canada, which likely contributed to its slower adoption of digital alternatives to TV.
