Television viewing

The proportion of Canadian content in pay-TV and specialty television continued to grow, rising from 40% in the fall of 1998 to 44% in the fall of 2002. During the same period, the proportion of Canadian content in Canadian conventional television declined slightly, from 57% to 56%.

The growth in the Canadian content of pay-TV and specialty television stations was observed for all types of programs (to varying degrees) except for Canadian music and dance programs, whose viewing share declined from 4.5% to 2.5%.

For Canadian conventional television stations, the decline in Canadian content is attributable to Canadian sports programs (down from 7.3% to 4.8%) and Canadian variety and games programs (down from 8.3% to 5.6%).

The growing popularity of Canadian pay-TV and specialty television stations is even more apparent with respect to total viewing. Year after year, Canadians have increased the proportion of their viewing time that they spend watching those stations, from 16% in 1998 to 25% in 2002. In contrast, the time spent watching Canadian conventional television stations has continued to decrease (from 56% to 51%) during the same period.This shift of both viewership and Canadian content from Canadian conventional television stations to pay-TV and specialty television stations was observed in both linguistic groups.

The proportion of viewing time that francophones spent watching Canadian conventional television stations remained high (71%, of which nearly 80% was for programs of Canadian origin), but was nevertheless down from the 77% registered in the fall of 1998. For anglophones, the proportion stood at 45% (of which 43% was for programs of Canadian origin), compared with 49% five years earlier.

Francophones spent 22% of their viewing time watching pay-TV and specialty television stations (of which 53% was for programs of Canadian origin), compared with 13% in 1998. Anglophones spent 25% of their viewing time watching these stations (of which 41% was for programs of Canadian origin), compared with 16% in 1998.

Overall, viewing of programs of Canadian origin has remained relatively stable over the past five years at around 39% of total viewing, but this is higher than the 35% observed ten years ago.

Foreign academic instruction programs and Canadian documentaries growing in popularity

The viewing time for academic instruction programs has doubled in the last five years, reaching 3.6% in the fall of 2002. This strong increase is largely attributable to foreign programs, which went from 0.7% to nearly 2% of total viewing. Anglophones are increasingly tuning in to this type of foreign programming; it accounted for 2.4% of their viewing time, compared with only 0.8% in 1998. Francophones, for their part, are spending more time viewing Canadian academic instruction programs (3.1% compared with 2.1% five years ago).

More than 5% of the viewing of Canadian pay-TV and specialty television is devoted to academic instruction programs, compared with 2% in the case of Canadian conventional television.

Canadian documentaries also showed strong growth, almost doubling their share of viewers to 1.5% in 2002. This growth was observed among both anglophones and francophones.

Documentaries accounted for 6% of the viewing of Canadian pay-TV and specialty television, compared with 1.8% for Canadian conventional television.

Foreign variety and games programs are becoming increasingly popular (8.1% of total viewing, compared with 5.6% in 1998), at the expense of programs of this type originating in Canada (3.5% compared with 5.6% in 1998). This is the combined result of an increase in the viewing of foreign variety and games programs among anglophones and a drop in the viewing of this type of Canadian programming among francophones.

The popularity of foreign variety and games programs may in part be due to the advent of reality TV, since it accounts for 35% of their viewership.

Unlike in the case of documentaries and academic instruction programs, the proportion of viewers watching variety and games programs is larger for Canadian conventional television stations (14%) than for Canadian pay-TV and specialty television stations (6.5%).

Overall, comedies and dramas (combined) account for the largest share (38.5%) of Canadians' total viewing, followed by news and public affairs programs (25.2%).

This predominance of comedies and dramas applies to stations in both categories of Canadian television. However, on Canadian pay-TV and specialty television stations, sports rank second (17%), while on Canadian conventional television stations, news and public affairs programs are in second place and are in fact a very close second (36%). In both categories of television, foreign comedies and dramas and Canadian sports, news and public affairs programs dominate.

The penetration rate of dish antennas increased substantially over the last five years

The penetration rate of dish antennas has grown remarkably since 1998, in all provinces. It reached 19% in the fall of 2002, compared with only 5% five years earlier. By province, Saskatchewan had the highest rate (35%) and British Columbia, the lowest (15%).

Meanwhile, the penetration rate of cable has steadily declined, falling to 68% compared with 77% in 1998. A decrease was observed in all provinces. In contrast to dish antennas, cable was most popular in British Columbia, with a penetration rate of 78%, and least popular in Saskatchewan, with a rate of 51%.

The Annual Cable Television Survey also confirms this change in the situation of cable television, with the number of subscribers to satellite television growing steadily and the number of cable television subscribers continuing to decline.

Quebec francophones lead in television viewing

Television was viewed the most in Quebec (23.8 hours per week), more than two hours more than the national average. The gap was greatest among those aged 35 and over.

Quebec francophones spent the most time in front of the small screen (24.5 hours per week), while Quebec anglophones were, for the first time, those who watch television the least in Canada.

Children and teens spent less time in front of the tube - two hours less per week than five years ago. Men aged 18 to 24 continued to be the group least interested in watching television, with only 12.6 hours per week. At the other extreme, women aged 60 and over watched television the most (nearly 36 hours per week).

Overall, Canadians still spent a sizable portion of their time watching television, at 21.6 hours per week. The number of hours of television viewing has been relatively stable over the past four years.

Available on CANSIM: tables 502-0001 to 502-0005.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3114.

Selected details from the Television Viewing Survey in table format (87F0006XIE, free) are now available online. Data from the survey are also available by province. Researchers can request special tabulations on a cost-recovery basis.

For general information, contact Client Services (1-800-307-3382; cult.tourstats@statcan.gc.ca). To order special or standard tables or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Lotfi Chahdi (613-951-3136; fax: 613-951-1333; lotfi.chahdi@statcan.gc.ca) Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.