The Vast Majority of People Still Watch TV on TV
Despite the growth of handheld video devices and TV shows on the internet, people still spend more than 9 out of 10 hours watching TV the old-fashioned way, on regular sets.
According to a survey from CBC’s research department, people spent 97 per cent of their time watching programming on regular TV sets, or with PVR’s, DVD’s or video on demand. Only two per cent of the total watching time was committed to watching television online.
The results seem to indicate that although Canadians spend a lot of time surfing online, they are not yet spending much of that time watching television shows. The average Anglophone Canadian now spends just shy of 14 hours a week online, compared to 15 hours a week watching TV.
Of the video content that is being watched online, amateur video is still the most popular, but it’s not growing in popularity. On the flip side watching professionally produced television online is growing quickly. More than one quarter of Anglophone internet users said spent time watching online TV in the last month, an increase of 50% since last year.
And what are they watching? News. Of all the types of online TV content, news clips or newscasts are the most popular by a mile – 73 per cent of respondents said they had watched news clips or shows in the last month, sports came in a distant second at 46 per cent.
The survey results are based on 6,000 telephone interviews with Anglophone adults residing in all regions of Canada. The interviews were conducted from October 20, 2008 to December 21, 2008 and are considered accurate within plus or minus 1.3 percentage points 19 times out of 20. For more information on the survery contact the CBC/Radio-Canada Research and Strategic Analysis department.
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Paul, earlier this week CBC submitted a detailed analysis of TV viewing in Canada to the Heritage Committee which stated that “TV viewing remains strong, despite the growth of the internet” and claimed that the average Canadian spent more than 27 hours per week watching TV. That’s almost double the hours in the CBC Research survey you cite and can’t be attributed to minor methodological differences. Which is correct, the data submitted to Heritage or the CBC Research study?
that’s a good question, I don’t know the answer. the research I’m quoting is from a phone survey of reported television and internet usage. The problem with self-reporting is that people often under-report their TV viewing. So the actual number may be higher than 15 hours a week.
Paul, as I said, I don’t think this can be linked simply to methodology. If it were, then what is the point of doing a phone survey to measure TV or internet use?
Barry, I can’t compare the two stats because I only have one of them. I don’t know the source of the other stat or the how it was calculated, so I’m not really able to comment on it.
Watching television with a HD signal, though a compressed HD one supplied by Rogers, far surpasses most of the quality offered up by traditional broadcasters if at all on the net.
Sure the occasional viral video of a bumbling white guy landing on his keester is very entertaing even with poor resolution.
But when I want to watch the National it will be in HD.
With all the geo-blocking going of US websites by CTV & Global of programming they have rights to but don’t offer online trying to catch up on missed television is sometimes frustrating.
On-line presence is vital but until the quality improves I’ll still be going to the TV room.
Maybe one day we’ll have a Verizon FiOS style quality signal coming into our homes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon_FiOS
I would have a look – if the massive boondoggle that is IO could perform the most basic task a web server could be asked to do and serve a static PDF to me sometime THIS CENTURY.
[...] Go figure http://www.insidethecbc.com/the-vast-majority-of-people-still-watch-tv-the-old-way [...]
CTV and Global aren’t blocking US websites. Their powers are manifold but don’t yet extend to a Great Firewall. The sites themselves are blocking you as per their licensing agreements.
Actually, Paul, you provided a link to the CBC data submitted to Heritage here the other day:
http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/submissions/2009-pa.shtml
It claimed much higher levels of TV usage and I believe is the same data source used for all CBC program audiences.
you’re right. There’s no attribution to that number, so I’m not sure where it came from.
It seems that other research supports the 27 hours. This link shows that Americans watch 37.75 hours a week, (according to Nielson BBM), and this report shows that Canadians watch 27 hours a week, again from BBM Nielsen Media Research.
Many consumers (especially younger ones) don’t have a conventional land line telephone from a traditional telco and therefore aren’t listed in phone directories.
If the survey participants for this telephone survey were selected using telephone books, etc., the results are only based on a segment of the population that continues to use traditional telco lines.
I would venture that consumers who exclusively use alternative forms of telephony are also more likely to consume entertainment content through alternative channels and in unconventional formats — and this survey would miss that fact.
On the other hand, if people tend to prefer cellphones over landlines for reasons of convenience and economics, rather than some ill-defined neophilia, that isn’t an argument for them preferring online video over conventional. A cable box with some VOD subscriptions is going to cover most of the timeshifting needs of the average consumer these days. To reproduce the same with online video legally is practically impossible in Canada (no Hulu-analogue), and illegally you’re looking at the cost of a media server, a decent broadband connection, and some technical knowledge and time spent setting it up.
I’m not saying that you’re wrong, necessarily, just that you’re making a leap that isn’t supported by the facts at hand.
Kev… I’m not “making a leap” but rather positing a possible flaw in the survey. If anything, the survey makes a leap by concluding that “people spent 97 per cent of their time watching programming on regular TV sets, or with PVR’s, DVD’s or video on demand” based on a telephone survey.
The survey demonstrates that a *specific subset* of the population (those who can be found for a telephone survey and who agree to participate in such a survey) display certain patterns with respect to content consumption. However, it is a leap to generalize the findings based on that subset into a general conclusion that is applicable to the population at large. Likewise, if the survey had been conducted online, and therefore incorporated responses only from those who use the Internet and were willing to participate in such a survey, the results would likely be
skewed differently.
You are correct that it is difficult if not impossible for the typical consumer to replicate their content consumption behaviour online in Canada — the content simply isn’t available to do so and, if it were, bandwidth caps and surcharges would tend to undermine the effectiveness of such substitution. This too has an impact on the results. It is flawed to conclude from a survey that says that since people do one thing in the absence of a viable alternative that people would behave the same way if viable alternatives existed.
But the survey wasn’t about what people would do given the necessary resources, it was about what they are doing. If as you say, it’s currently difficult to impossible for Canadians to watch broadcast content online (legally), then the survey’s result would seem to be more validated than anything else.
Of course, all it takes to upset the board is someone pulling their finger out and establishing an effective Hulu-esque service. But with the cable companies and the privates pulling against it (the former not wishing to become a utility and the latter not wanting to lose a monopoly on CSI:[Location] eyeballs), it’s going to be an uphill struggle.