Last year, the IAB and PHD reported Canadians’ average internet usage had caught up to TV watching — but this year it has dialled back its estimate. According to the new estimates, TV is still the most watched medium in Canada, though by only one hour per week.
The 2014 Canadian Media Usage Trends (CMUST) report, delivered at Thursday’s IAB X-Series: Metrics conference, found the average Canadian 18+ watches an average of 29.3 hours/per week of TV (1,758 min), while its new estimate for Internet usage is 27.8 hours/week (1,669 min). Last year’s CMUST estimates put Internet and TV virtually neck-and-neck with 28.9 hours/week for Internet (1,735 min) and 28.8 hours/week for TV (1,728).
PHD senior VP director of insights and CMUST lead author Rob Young said though there have been some real declines in PC usage, the downward revision was primarily driven by an adjustment in comScore’s measurement methodology (which provides the base internet usage number, upon which PHD layers its estimates).
Internet time is still incredibly difficult to estimate. The researchers believe as much as 40% of Canadians’ internet usage isn’t accessible to marketers or research firms, which means that best guesses account for a big chunk of their estimate.
“We figure about 40% of internet time is still buried out there. It still needs to be understood, measured and counted,” said Young.
The difference between time spent on TV and internet is well within the margin of error, so they’re still virtually equal. The bigger issue is that with so much time still inaccessible, it’s hard to see how much Canadians’ online usage has increased year-to-year.
14% of Canadians are cord cutters
CMUST looked at the cord-cutting population for the first time, primarily using data from Media Technology Monitor. MTM breaks down cord-cutters into two groups: “cord-nevers,” who don’t access live TV through cable or DTH, and “tuned out” consumers, who don’t watch TV at all. According to numbers CMUST used, the percentage of cord-nevers has actually fallen since 2007, from 9% to 5%, but the percentage of true cord-cutters has grown from 5% to 9%. Adding them together, the two groups make up roughly 14% of the population, which remains flat compared to 2007.
But Young said the national numbers were masking some interesting regional trends. Urban residents were much more likely to say they were thinking about cutting the cord in the next year. In Toronto, for example, 26% of residents had considered cord-cutting, while only 8% of francophone Quebec viewers were considering it.
Young said the prevalence of “pick and pay” cable providers in Quebec may be what’s accounting for the difference. He compared cord-cutter rates for two anonymous cable providers, a national provider offering bundles, and a Quebec provider offering channel selection. The national provider had a higher-than-average cord-cutting consideration rate at 22%, while the French provider had a much lower 6% rate.
Majority of Millennial video time comes is digital
In comparing demographics, the report added up all time spent on TV, pureplay digital video (like YouTube) and cobranded digital video (like CBC), and discovered adults 18-34 spend roughly the same amount of time watching video as the average for all adults 18+ (2,679 min/week for 18-34s, 2,527 min/week for adults 18+).
But while the majority of adults’ video time comes from TV, for Millennials the majority is coming from pureplay online video. The shift is rather drastic: 70% of adult video time comes from TV, but 56% of Millennial video time comes from digital video properties like YouTube and Netflix.
Young also highlighted a significant advertiser spending gap in online video. Online video makes up roughly 16% of all digital and traditional media consumption, but based on IAB revenue figures it accounts for only 1% of total ad spend.
