TORONTO — While the good news for TV distributors and broadcasters is the vast majority of Canadians continue to pay for TV subscriptions, the average total number of hours of video content viewed per week is on the decline, according to Gord Hendren, president and CEO of market research firm Charlton Insights.
The latest research from Charlton Insights for CTAM Canada regarding video consumption in Canada was presented at the annual CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum held Wednesday afternoon in downtown Toronto. Hendren’s annual presentation at the gathering typically provides a reality check on Canadians’ TV viewing habits, as it did again this year. The Charlton Insights study focused specifically on the impact of consumers’ consumption of video content more than five minutes in length.
According to Charlton Insights’ research, 80% of Canadians are currently paid TV subscribers or have access to a subscription, which is relatively unchanged from a year ago. In addition, roughly 65% of the overall survey respondents’ weekly video consumption is done via a TV subscription. Content streaming via the internet accounts for about 26% of the total number of hours that respondents view video content on a weekly basis.
However, as mentioned, the total hours of respondents’ video consumption have declined, decreasing to 26.6 hours per week in 2017, down from 29.0 hours in 2016, according to the study. Breaking down the numbers on video viewing methods, survey respondents said they consume 17.4 hours of video per week using their TV subscription, and 7 hours per week via video streaming. Of note, streaming content onto a TV set has increased, with this year’s survey respondents saying they stream 3.1 hours of video per week via their TV set, which is up from 2.5 hours per week in 2016. In comparison, respondents reported streaming less video on their smartphones on a weekly basis when compared to last year’s survey.
Furthermore, survey respondents indicated they are consuming less video via DVD/Blu-Ray on a weekly basis when compared to last year, and are less likely to watch video content downloaded to a computer than respondents who participated in last year’s survey.
When it comes to channel trimming and cord cutting, Charlton Insights’ research again offers good news and bad news for broadcasters and distributors. Among this year’s survey respondents, 34% said they are planning to trim channels, which is actually down from 38% of respondents last year. However, 10% of those surveyed this year said they plan to cut their TV service, which is an increase from 8% of respondents in 2016 who indicated they had the same intention.
Looking at the 80% of overall respondents who are currently paid TV subscribers, Charlton Insights found an increase in the amount of TV content consumed by subscribers both during the scheduled time of a program or via PVR/DVR on a weekly basis, while on-demand TV viewing was relatively flat compared to last year.
“Millennials reported they were consuming far more short-form video content (less than 5 minutes in length) on a weekly basis via platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram, which may be detracting from their weekly viewing of longer-form content.”
However, when looking at millennials specifically, the research found only 69% of millennials subscribe to paid TV, with on-demand viewing being the only method that saw an increase in terms of average hours of video content viewed per week via TV subscription by this demographic group. When it comes to average hours per week of video streaming, millennials who participated in the survey indicated an increase in streaming content onto a TV set. Streaming on a smartphone was also up among millennials, while streaming content on computers and tablets was relatively unchanged compared to the 2016 survey results.
One noticeable trend among millennials that was highlighted by Hendren (pictured) during his presentation is a significant drop in consumption of video content more than 5 minutes in length, particularly via OTT. According to Charlton Insights’ research, the total number of hours per week of video content viewing among millennials has dropped on average to 21.3 hours per week in 2017, compared to 28.4 hours per week in 2016. When Charlton Insights looked deeper into this trend, Hendren said millennials reported they were consuming far more short-form video content (less than 5 minutes in length) on a weekly basis via platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram, which may be detracting from their weekly viewing of longer-form content.
"The new competitor on the block for share of time is video content under five minutes,” Hendren said. “When we designed this study, we’ve always been focused on over five minutes as the core business of CTAM and the distributors and the content creators, and that still holds, but what’s happened in terms of the evolution of the marketplace is there’s a new competitor on the block that is video content under five minutes because it’s competing for share of time and share of your consumer.”
Of the total number of overall respondents surveyed, 53% said they subscribe to some type of OTT service, with 47% saying they subscribe to Netflix specifically. In 2016, only 41% of survey respondents said they subscribed to Netflix. Other OTT services that saw notable subscription increases in 2017 include Bell’s CraveTV, Amazon Prime and Roku, Hendren said.
“The Netflix juggernaut continues. The numbers are in the high 40s — 47% — and the intentions to subscribe to Netflix in the future are also substantial and increasing. So that wave just continues on. Other services like CraveTV, Amazon Prime, increased significantly but…Netflix is let’s say four times bigger than its next competitors,” he explained.
Not surprisingly, price is the number one factor when Canadians are making decisions about paid TV subscriptions, Hendren said. In fact, 43% of those surveyed said it was the most important factor, while 23% said delivery method is their number one consideration, with cable still by and large the most preferred delivery method for TV, followed by satellite, IPTV and Internet. Among the non-TV subscribers included in the survey, their preferred delivery method for video content was the opposite, with Internet ranking highest, followed by IPTV, satellite and cable, Hendren said.
In terms of the different features a TV subscription might offer, 45% of overall survey respondents said they were very interested in the flexibility in the channels they could subscribe to, with even 36% of non-TV subscribers indicating channel flexibility was the most important subscription feature for them.
Hendren’s “2017 Video Consumption Research” presentation is available to CTAM Canada members on its website by clicking here.
The survey’s total sample was of 3,121 respondents, all 18+. That means a margin of error + 1.8%, 19 times out of 20.
