WOULD CANADIANS really want to limit the number of TV channels coming into their homes if given the opportunity to choose them one at a time? You bet they would.
As part of its ongoing, annual, Digital Life Canada survey, Toronto’s Solutions Research Group asked respondents earlier this year what they would do if presented with more choice in their cable, satellite or telcoTV bundles.
If given a choice, 64% of Canadians would drop one or more channels from their subscription, says the independent, syndicated research. The question asked was: “Some people say that if they had a choice, they would drop a number of the channels they currently have as part of their subscription because they don’t watch them very often. Others say that they would keep their channel package the same as now even if they may not watch all the channels regularly because they like having a wide range of options available. Which view is closer to your own?”
Sixty-four percent of Canadians is roughly equal to 8 million Canadian households (so it's clear that the federal government can certainly read consumer sentiment when it comes to the fed's push to break up the channel bundles, no matter what anyone thinks of its scattershot, surprisingly granular and meddling, policies). The survey was published in May, 2013.
Perhaps a little scarier – since the older demographic is assumed to be dyed-in-the-wool watchers of many TV hours – is the survey also found 72% of those aged 50-plus would drop channels, under the same question scenario.
Now, the survey did not go into detail on pricing of a-la-carte channels versus bundled and the volume discounts which would still be offered in an a-la-carte world, so it doesn’t present all the facts to respondents, but it does show strong consumer sentiment towards trimming some channels from their subscription TV bundles.
