TORONTO – Canada’s marketing and research association dedicated to television, thinktv, confirmed what we wrote about earlier this week: As Canadians shelter at home in greater numbers due to the Covid-19 crisis, television audiences are growing.
In a communique to members Thursday, thinktv noted average daily television viewing has increased by 12% for A25-54 and 14% for A18-34 YOY (Total Canada) with growth across almost every daypart, while time spent has grown from 23 to 25.7 hours/week (2+).
Increases are even higher when sports networks (which have seen large drops in viewers) are left out of the calculations.
News has seen an incredible increase as people seek out real time, and real, news on the pandemic. “Viewership to local and national news programs on conventional television has increased significantly, and tune-in to Canadian specialty news channels has grown by 300% YOY,” says thinktv.
News isn’t the only story, of course. Research from Rogers Media (see below) confirms Canadians are also looking to escape, ranking comedies and documentaries as the top two types of programming they’re watching more often for a brief respite from these difficult times.
Download the full report here.
