Canadians watched less TV in 2013 but streamed more: CRTC report

TORONTO – Canadians spent a little less time channel surfing last year but still watched more TV content overall when accounting for streaming, suggests a report by the CRTC.

The average Canadian aged two or older watched 27.9 hours of TV a week in 2013 — or about four hours nightly — which was down by about 20 minutes from 2012, according to the 2014 Communications Monitoring Report.

But Canadian adults also devoted a good chunk of their free time to watching TV over the Internet.

The average adult streamed 1.9 hours of TV content weekly in 2013, which was up about 45 per cent over the previous year.

Over 40 per cent of Canadians said they watched TV over the Internet in 2013.

Twenty-nine per cent of English-speaking Canadian adults said they used Netflix for streaming in 2013, up from 21 per cent in 2012.

French-speaking Canadian adults were less likely to use Netflix, with only seven per cent saying they did so in 2013.

While many Canadians chose to cut the cord in 2013 and go without a TV subscription, they still represented a small minority.

There were about 100,000 fewer Canadian households subscribing to a TV plan last year, but 11.92 million were still paying for access to a bevy of channels.

The CRTC also found Canadians were listening to a little less radio in 2013, tuning in for an average of 19.3 hours a week compared to 19.6 hours in 2012. About one in five Canadians said they were using an online music streaming service last year.