TV can still attract viewers with right products
Published on Thursday October 04, 2012 Ashante Infantry Business Reporter
Canadians may be embracing multiple screens to access the Internet, but under the right circumstances, TV will still dominate, says a new report.
When services, such as Netflix, are available on multiple screens, viewers tend to choose TV, even though computers are more popular for viewing online video or TV from a broadcaster’s website, found Media Technology Monitor, a product of CBC/Radio-Canada research.
That’s because most online video/TV services are not designed with the TV set in mind.
“Vimeo and Google and broadcasters don’t quite yet have very easy, usable multi-platform video services, whereas Netflix is designed from the start to be used either on a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, or a TV set,” said Mark Allen, Director, Research and Analysis CBC|Radio-Canada.
“I conclude from this that when video providers have a seamless, multiscreen offering that the TV set will still be king.”
With 52 per cent of Canadians owning two devices to get online, the telephone survey of 12,040 Canadians was undertaken to determine the preferred screen for consuming media.
The industry has also noted the growth of “four screen users” — owners of all four devices, about three per cent of Internet users. Not surprisingly, nearly 10 per cent of that demographic tends to have household incomes over $150,000. They are also more likely to be: males, 18-to-49-years-old, university educated and in households with children or teenagers.
The four screen users spend more time online — 27.1 hours weekly vs. 16.5 for typicale users — and less using conventional TV and radio.
“TV and radio broadcasters will need to recognize that four screen Canadians are a small group of people right now, but they’re still consuming quite a bit of media, just they’re moving it online, watching a little less TV on the TV set, but spending a tremendous amount of those hours watching and listening online,” said Allen. “It’s a matter of shifting their behaviour to a platform that’s more preferable.”
The report also found that smartphones were primarily used for social networking.
“Things like watching video, or listening to audio, or watching online news, these are nice things to be able to do on your smartphone, but they’re not the primary reason people have a smartphone,” said Allen.
Published on Thursday October 04, 2012 Ashante Infantry Business Reporter
Canadians may be embracing multiple screens to access the Internet, but under the right circumstances, TV will still dominate, says a new report.
When services, such as Netflix, are available on multiple screens, viewers tend to choose TV, even though computers are more popular for viewing online video or TV from a broadcaster’s website, found Media Technology Monitor, a product of CBC/Radio-Canada research.
That’s because most online video/TV services are not designed with the TV set in mind.
“Vimeo and Google and broadcasters don’t quite yet have very easy, usable multi-platform video services, whereas Netflix is designed from the start to be used either on a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, or a TV set,” said Mark Allen, Director, Research and Analysis CBC|Radio-Canada.
“I conclude from this that when video providers have a seamless, multiscreen offering that the TV set will still be king.”
With 52 per cent of Canadians owning two devices to get online, the telephone survey of 12,040 Canadians was undertaken to determine the preferred screen for consuming media.
The industry has also noted the growth of “four screen users” — owners of all four devices, about three per cent of Internet users. Not surprisingly, nearly 10 per cent of that demographic tends to have household incomes over $150,000. They are also more likely to be: males, 18-to-49-years-old, university educated and in households with children or teenagers.
The four screen users spend more time online — 27.1 hours weekly vs. 16.5 for typicale users — and less using conventional TV and radio.
“TV and radio broadcasters will need to recognize that four screen Canadians are a small group of people right now, but they’re still consuming quite a bit of media, just they’re moving it online, watching a little less TV on the TV set, but spending a tremendous amount of those hours watching and listening online,” said Allen. “It’s a matter of shifting their behaviour to a platform that’s more preferable.”
The report also found that smartphones were primarily used for social networking.
“Things like watching video, or listening to audio, or watching online news, these are nice things to be able to do on your smartphone, but they’re not the primary reason people have a smartphone,” said Allen.
