The Daily. Tuesday, October 23, 2001

Television viewing

Pay-TV and specialty services have continued to grow at the expense of conventional television. By the fall of 2000, the audience share for conventional Canadian and foreign stations had declined to only 65%, compared with over 99% in 1982.

This decline has been due mainly to the greater number of Canadian and foreign pay-TV and specialty services, the audience share for which grew from less than 1% in 1982 to almost 30% in 2000.

Canadians spent close to 40% of their viewing time watching Canadian programs in 2000. Canadian programs were, however, much more popular with francophones than anglophones.

On average, viewers watched 21.5 hours of television a week in the fall of 2000, virtually unchanged from 1999. This figure reflects a slight downward trend since the peak of just over 23 hours recorded in the fall of 1995 and at the beginning of the 1990s.

Note to readers The Culture Statistics Program's Television Project is a joint undertaking of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canadian Heritage and Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada's databank on television viewing consists of files from several sources. Basic viewing data are acquired from BBM Bureau of Measurement. They include the demographics of survey respondents and the schedules of most television stations whose signal is picked up in Canada. CRTC staff prepare a file that codes the characteristics of each program broadcast during the survey period. The major characteristics dealt with are: content (for example, news, public affairs, drama or religious programming); language; country of origin; and percentage of Canadian content. The final databank, which is retained by Statistics Canada, also indicates the network affiliation and geographic location of each television station. Basic survey data have been collected by BBM from a sample of Canadians aged 2 and over. Viewing data for each viewer cover seven consecutive days, and were collected using a diary-type questionnaire over four weeks during the period of October 19 to November 22, 2000. Another organization, Nielsen Media Research, also produces data on television viewing. This firm uses electronic meters to collect data on a year-round basis. The results of this alternate methodology may produce averages that vary from the basic results produced by BBM.

Pay-TV, specialty services growing at the expense of conventional television

The decline in audience share for conventional Canadian and foreign stations has been one of the most significant trends in television viewing during the past two decades.

Canadian conventional stations alone represented 53% of total viewing hours in 2000, down almost one-third from their share of 75% in 1982. Part of this drop may be attributable to the arrival of VCRs in the early 1980s, which accounted for about 5% of total viewing hours in 2000. However, the main reason for the change in viewership has been pay-TV and specialty services.

Increased access to cable and satellite transmission in the past 20 years has allowed pay and specialty services to develop, and both now compete directly with conventional television stations. Almost 84% of the population had access to cable or satellite services in 2000.

Cable television has been expanding, with a growing market penetration that reached 73% in 2000. In addition, satellite services, which have increased substantially since 1997, had a penetration rate of 11% in 2000, compared with a rate of about 3% that remained stable during the early 1990s.

These distribution services have led to continuous growth for Canadian and foreign pay and specialty services. In 1982, these accounted for less than 1% of Canadians' viewing time. By 2000, this proportion reached nearly 30%, with Canadian services accounting for two-thirds of that viewing time.

Canadian programming maintains its popularity among francophones

Canadians spent almost 40% of their viewing time in the fall of 2000 watching Canadian programs. However, these were much more popular with francophones than anglophones. Francophones spent almost two-thirds of their viewing hours watching Canadian programs; anglophones spent just 30%.

The type of programming most popular with Canadians was the combined category of comedy and drama. It accounted for nearly 40% of total viewing, followed by news and public affairs programs (24%) and variety and games programs (12%).

Distribution of television viewing time, by origin and type of program and origin of station, francophones 2 years and older

These preferences were apparent for both language groups, but the draw of Canadian programs was much stronger for francophones. Within the combined category of comedy and drama, francophones spent 41% of their viewing time watching Canadian programs, compared with only 10% for anglophones. Canadian content was widely preferred in news and public affairs programs, particularly by francophones, who spent 96% of their viewing time in this category watching Canadian programs, compared with 73% among anglophones.

The most striking difference between the two language groups was the popularity of Canadian variety and games programs. Francophones spent about 80% of their viewing time in this category watching Canadian programs, compared with only 12% for anglophones.

Distribution of television viewing time, by origin and type of program and origin of station, anglophones 2 years and older

This difference in preferences may be partly because fewer foreign French-language programs than English-language programs were available, as anglophones have same-language access to American stations.

The difference between the two language groups was equally apparent at the provincial level. In 2000, Quebec was the only province in which Canadian program viewing made up the highest percentage (63%) of total viewing.

Children and teens watched fewer Canadian programs than did adults. This was mainly due to the fact that news and public affairs, where viewing is dominated by Canadian programming, is a category in which children and teens spend little of their viewing time (10% for teens and 5% for children). More than half of their viewing time is spent watching drama and comedy, mostly foreign.

Average viewing time remains stable

Canadians watched television for an average of 21.5 hours a week in the fall of 2000, virtually unchanged from the fall of 1999. This figure reflects a slight downward trend since the peak of just over 23 hours in the fall of 1995 and at the beginning of the 1990s. Average viewing ranged between 23 and 24 hours a week during the 1980s.

Provincial levels of average weekly viewing varied considerably. In 2000, viewers in Newfoundland and Quebec spent 24.0 hours a week watching television, the highest level, while viewers in Alberta spent the least (19.7 hours).

In Quebec, francophones watched for four hours more than did anglophones, as well as three hours more than the national average. Francophones of all age and sex groups watched more television than did anglophones, although the difference varied from one group to another.

Across Canada, the group that spent the least amount of time in front of the tube, only 13.2 hours, was men aged 18 to 24. Teens (14.1 hours) and children (15.5 hours) also recorded low viewing hours. Women watched television the most (25.5 hours per week), almost five hours more than did men. For both sexes, the number of viewing hours increased with age.

For more information or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Lotfi Chahdi at (613-951-3136; fax: 613-951-1333, lotfi.chahdi@statcan.gc.ca), Culture Statistics Program, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.

Average hours per week of television viewing, by province and age/sex groups