MONTREAL — Nearly 45% of all Canadian pay-TV subscribers tuned in to a Stingray Music channel in January and close to 15 million listeners tuned in during the holidays, according to the latest Canadian listenership research from Maru/Matchbox (formerly Vision Critical) and Numeris.
The Canadian Omnibus Stingray Listenership Study 2020 by Maru/Matchbox found the percentage of all Canadians with pay-TV subscriptions who reported tuning into a Stingray Music channel in January was 44%, a 10% increase over September and January of last year. In Quebec, this percentage was even higher, with 52% of pay-TV subscribers reporting they tuned into a Stringray Music channel in January.
According to the Maru/Matchbox study, there was noticeable listenership growth among the 18-34 demographic — 38% of young adults in this age group reported tuning into Stingray Music in January, stronger numbers than ever before, the news release says.
In addition, 24% of all survey respondents said they used the Stingray Music app via mobile, tablet or online in the past, a 14% increase over the previous year, the release says. Overall, 18% of Canadians surveyed reported using the Stingray Music mobile app, tying it with Spotify in second place after YouTube, in a ranking of the most used free music streaming services.
The Numeris PPM data for the Canadian holiday season (December 16-29, 2019) found Stingray Music reached more than 14.8 million Canadians aged 2+ (40.5% of Canadians) and 41.1% of adults aged 25-54 (6.2 million) during the holiday period. Stingray Music’s English-language holiday programming channel alone reached more than 8.3 million Canadians aged 2+, while Stingray Music’s French-language holiday programming channel reached more than 1.9 million Canadians 2+, says the news release.
Furthermore, in terms of measuring the Numeris audio universe (total radio tuning plus total Stingray audio tuning), Stingray Music represented 13.6% of the aged 2+ Numeris audio universe and 12.2% of the adults 25-54 Numeris audio universe during the holiday season, according to the news release.
Other key findings from the Maru/Matchbox study:
- 26% of respondents said they would consider switching to a different pay-TV provider if their current provider removed the free music service and mobile app access.
- For adults who reported tuning in to TV in the past week or month, this figure climbs to 43%.
