Reinforcing recent CRTC data suggesting the cord-cutting phenomenon is not as prevalent as reported, the Television Bureau of Canada (TVB) says there is a significant disconnect between the so-called “new world” of video consumption and the actual media habits of Canadians.
The Toronto-based association released the findings of an extensive research study Thursday conducted in partnership with Ipsos Reid Media CT entitled The New TV Landscape: Understanding Broadcast Television within the New Media Landscape in Canada.
The study was conducted using Ipsos Reid’s iSay panel of online Canadians, with the first phase utilizing a sample of 3,500 adults 18+ who completed a media diary based on an hour-by-hour report of their activity the previous day. The second phase was an attitudinal survey of subsample of 2,470 diary respondents.
Research found that the average online Canadian 18+ spends seven hours each day consuming media, the overwhelming majority (47%) of which is spent watching video – followed by web browsing (20%), listening (12%), gaming (9%), social network activity (6%) and reading (6%).
Of the approximately four hours per day the average Canadian adult spends watching video, the study says three hours and 18 minutes of that time is spent with commercial TV.
The average Canadian spends 30 minutes a day watching “grey zone” video – defined as disc, YouTube, social network and peer-to-peer – and 12 minutes watching non-commercial TV services such as Netflix or premium TV networks like HBO Canada.
The New TV Landscape study found that 80% of viewing hours are spent on a TV, more than five times as much as with a desktop or laptop (15%) and well ahead of smartphones and tablets (2%) and MP3 players (1%).
“In a saturated media landscape, where consumers have the choice of a wide variety of screens, TV remains the screen of choice,” said TVB president Theresa Treutler, in a release.
Adults 18-34 comprised approximately 700 survey respondents, with the study suggesting that commercial TV also dominates their lives – accounting for 63% of time spent watching, compared with 25% grey-zone consumption and 12% for non-commercial TV.
Attitudinal research found that this age group values commercial TV more than the general adult population, indicating that they talk about it with friends and family (index = 114); spend time with friends and family (index = 111) and view it as a way to connect with friends and family (index = 132).
This group spends an average of one hour less per day with TV than adults 18+ (six hours compared with seven), and averages three hours of video viewing per day, compared with four hours for adults 18+.
The group is also more tech-savvy, with 73% of respondents indicating that their TV is connected to the Internet, compared to just 52% of the general adult population.
