For the first time ever, Canadians are consuming more products from the digital media than traditional TV content. This year’s Communications Monitoring Report by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) revealed that companies offering internet services earned $9.8 billion, whereas television services collected $8.9 billion.
This year’s Communications Monitoring Report by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) revealed that companies offering internet services earned $9.8 billion, whereas television services collected $8.9 billion. The report from the federal telecom regulator informed that the demand for data has significantly increased as the desire for TV packages fades. Almost the entire population of Canada has access to broadband networks and subscription rates have increased 3.3 percent since 2014.
About 38 percent of Canadians who spent the most on communications services went to mobile wireless services while 26 percent consumed home television services.
Compared to traditional means of entertainment and communication, the report shows that people in Canada are more interested in mobile apps, social networks, multi-media services and spend more time listening to online music, video and television streaming from their personal electronic gadgets.
Such activities required major amounts of data, which is why most of the wireless subscribers have a data plan of at least 1GB per month. Canada’s telecom regulator also noted that it is clear that the gap between voice services and data usage on mobile devices is increasingly marked. Almost 73 percent of the population owns a smartphone.
Most of the Canadian households have mobile services. Indeed, 24 percent of the population only have cell phones while 14 percent have a landline telephone only. This gap continues to increase.
Young Canadians watch less traditional TV
Overall, Canadians still watch traditional television. With an average of 42 hours/week, those who are 65 years and older watched more than twice the amount than those in the 12-17 and 18-34-year-old age groups, who watch 19 hours/week.
On average, Canadians watched 27.2 hours of traditional television per week in 2015. The conventional means include over-the-air, via cable, satellite and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). This reflects a minor decrease of 0.7 percent compared to 2014. Last year, these services had a 1.4 percent decline from the previous year with 11.2 million subscribers.
As for traditional radio habits, Canadians between 12 and 24 years old listen to half the amount than other age groups do.
The report states that industry revenues earned in 2015 2.5 percent more than in 2014, reaching $65.7 billion. It was a minor increase, and it was just slightly above the five-year average growth of 2.1 percent.
Source: Canada Journal