OTTAWA – One in seven Canadians live without a paid TV service and Anglophones are twice as likely to be thinking about cutting the cord as Francophones, according to two new reports from Media Technology Monitor (MTM).
The Off-Air and Tuned-Out Canadians report examines two unique groups, ‘Off-Air’ and ‘Tuned-Out, and looks at why they have chosen to live without paid TV service, how these groups compare to each other, and how they compare to those who do pay for TV service.
Highlights from the report include:
– Canadians without a paid TV service are less interested in television than those who subscribe, spending only half as much time as TV subscribers watching TV each week;
– Those living without a paid TV service are spending twice as much time watching online TV, and subscribing to online services such as Netflix. ‘Tuned-Out’ Canadians are 44% more likely to have a Netflix subscription than those subscribing to TV services.
The ability to access TV content is easier than ever before – paid service, over the air, online, Netflix, Apple TV – and for some, this provides enough reason to contemplate ‘cutting the cord’ or opting out of paid TV service, according to the second report.
Cord Cutting evaluates how much interest there is in cutting the cord on paid TV service in Canada, specifically, who’s most interested, how are they accessing TV content, and why they may cut the cord are just some of the topics explored.
Highlights from that report include:
– According to the most recent survey results, 16% of TV service subscribers “say” they are somewhat or very likely to join this group by cutting the cord over the course of the next year;
– Access to paid TV services such as ‘pick and pay’ and a relative lack of French programming available online may be contributing to Francophone’s lack of interest in cord cutting;
– Canadians with the greatest amount of interest in cutting the cord watch the least amount of traditional television, however, they consume twice as much online TV.
The reports are available now to subscribers on the MTM website. MTM is the research arm of the CBC.
