TORONTO – A new study on the TV viewing habits of Canadians claims that it has uncovered what women really watch.
Canwest Broadcasting commissioned Solutions Research Group to conduct the research in order to understand the level of viewer engagement to Canada’s top specialty channels, as well as viewer receptivity to, and perceived appropriateness of, advertising targeted at women on a variety of channels.
It found that lifestyle channels remain the most effective way to reach engaged female audiences, though a diverse group of channels dominated the top five in channel attentiveness: Mystery TV, Food Network, OLN, Discovery Channel and The Weather Network. While the study said that these results “are not surprising” for the traditionally high AMA ranking Food Network and Discovery, channels such as Canwest-owned Mystery TV and OLN were “unexpected additions” to the top of the attentiveness ranker.
When looking at advertising receptivity, the study found that the lifestyle category dominates with a top three showing for Food Network and HGTV (also owned by Canwest). Mystery TV, National Geographic and Dusk were “unexpected top rankers”, especially given the digital networks’ lower distribution levels.
Canwest also tested the appropriateness of category advertising across various channels in order to shed light on appropriate targeting and advertising environment. The results showed that women are receptive to advertising from various product categories on lifestyle channels, news networks and major television networks, but they are not receptive when advertisers attempt to reach them via channels targeted at children or on sports channels.
Modeled after the respected Simmons multi-media engagement study in the U.S., the study sampled 3,000 English Canadian adults aged 18-54. The channels included in the study were selected on Top 30 Fall AMA rankers (from August 31 – October 25, 2009), including ten from Canwest’s portfolio.
