Canadians prefer using their personal video recorders to catch up on television shows during the week, says a new study.
The Convergence Consulting Group, which did the report, found that viewers watched more TV shows on their PVRs on a weekly basis in 2012 than on free, legal online services like broadcasters’ websites.
This habit has been driven by aggressive pricing including free PVRs by providers such as Bell, Telus, Shaw and Quebecor, said Brahm Eiley, principal at Toronto-based Convergence.
“The PVR is a very, very attractive device,” he said. “It weds you to your television and it weds you to a style of watching that is very, very amenable to the lifestyle that we are living today.”
TV viewers were also using their PVRs more than video on demand, according to the study.
It found that 4.7 million Canadian households had personal video recorders at the end of 2012, compared with 3.5 million in 2011.
The Convergence Consulting Group estimated that just 52,000 Canadian TV subscribers were added by the end of 2012, down from 233,000 in 2011.
“Boom, it dropped this year. It dropped this year because all of a sudden you’ve got Netflix as an alternative and you have a lot more free TV out there,” Eiley said.
The study said 250,000, or 2.1%, of Canadian TV subscribers cut their TV subscriptions in 2011-2012 to rely solely on Netflix, over-the-air services or online.
Convergence is forecasting that Canadian TV cord cutter households will reach a total of 380,000, or 3.2%, by year-end 2013.
The study also looked at wireless phone carriers. It found that Wind Mobile, Mobilicity and Public Mobile are expected to have 8.1%, or 2.35 million Canadian wireless subscribers by the end of this year, Convergence said.
That’s up from 6.1%, or 1.69 million, at the end of 2012.
Eiley said Rogers, Bell, and Telus have brought down their prices to compete with the new players.
The study says more Canadians are also replacing their home landline with a mobile phone.
Convergence estimates wireless-only households at 18.2% at the end of 2012 and expects that to rise to 22% by the end of this year.
