Canadians and Their Television Watching Habits

Toronto, ON -- Consistent with other industry reports, a majority (53%) of Canadians say that they are watching "somewhat" (26%) or "much" less (27%) TV than they did five years ago. Another 28 percent say that they are watching the same amount, while only 19 percent say that they are watching more.

• The reported decline in TV watching over the last five years cuts across most regional and demographic lines, although younger Canadians (65%) are much more likely to say that they are watching less TV than older Canadians (45%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted for the i Channel between August 3 and August 8, 2001. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 1996 Census data.

There Are Two Main Challenges Facing TV in Addressing This Decline in Viewership Among Those Who Have Become Less Frequent Users Over the Last Five Years

One challenge is its ability to compete for the attention of Canadians. Over half (54%) of those who say that they are watching less TV now than five years ago say that the main reason is that they have other activities to fill their spare time. The other challenge is content. Almost one-third (30%) of these less frequent viewers say that they are watching less because there is nothing on TV that interests them.

• Competing activities is identified with higher frequency as the reason for decline in watching TV over the last five years among younger Canadians (66%), the better educated (58%) and higher income households (60%). Nothing of interest on TV tends to be given as a reason with higher than average frequency among the less educated (33%), lower income households (35%) and older Canadians (56%).

Current Watchers are Using TV More for Information/Education Than for Anything Else

Most (47%) current TV viewers say that to be informed/educated is the main reason why they watch TV. To be entertained (31%) emerges as the second most frequent reason for watching TV, followed by for relaxation (22% "use it as a release from other parts of the day").

Consequently, viewers report that they spend 43 percent of their time watching TV in an average week watch personal interest programming ("personal interest and learning programs like news, information shows, talk shows, documentaries"), while 35 percent of the time is spent watching entertainment programs ("entertainment programs like comedies, drama, movies, reality shows"). For the remainder, 14 percent of the time is spent watching sports (predictably higher for men 21% than women 8%), while 7 percent is spent watching game shows.

• Reasons for watching TV are generally consistent across key subgroups with the exception of age. Middle-age (45%) and older (58%) Canadians are much more likely than younger Canadians (28%) to say that they watch TV to be informed/educated, while the reverse is true on watching TV to be entertained (younger 42% versus 28% to 30% for middle-age and older Canadians).

Given That Information/Education is Identified by Most Viewers as the Main Reason for Their Use of TV, an Additional Challenge for TV Related to Content Emerges on the Perceived Amount of This Type of Programming Currently Available

One-third (36%) of TV viewers believe that there is currently not enough personal interest and learning programming currently available on TV, while 46 percent say that there is "just enough". Only 14 percent say that there is more than enough. Furthermore, in defining what this information/educational programming looks like with respect to "issues," two-thirds (68%) of TV viewers define an issue as "something that effects society generally," while 14 percent say an issue is "something political" and 7 percent say that it is "something that effects you personally".

• Regional and demographic differences are minimal.

Finally, Most TV Viewers Say That They Want TV to Challenge Them More Than it Currently Does "To Do More Than Stare Blankly at the Screen"

One-quarter (24%) want to be challenged in this way "all of the time," against only 8 percent who say that this is currently the case. Similarly only 16 percent say that they do not want to be challenged by TV at all, compared with 26 percent who say that this is currently the case.

• Results do not vary that much by region or demographics, although it is interesting that younger Canadians (30%) are somewhat more likely than their middle-age (24%) and older (21%) counterparts to say that they always want to be challenged by TV.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Martyn
Senior Vice President
Public Affairs
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900