Canadians Watching More Mobile Video, Less Cable TV Than Ever Before
Almost half of all Canadians watch online videos on their smartphones every day, according to AOL’s annual State of Industry Video report.
Illustrating the growth of digital video in general, 56% of Canadians say they consume more online content today than a year ago, with 41% watching more than four hours of online video a week, according to the report.
Across all devices, 70% of Canadians watch online videos daily, with breaking news ( 56%) and sporting events (34%) being the top two live categories. This year, almost half of people expect to watch more full-length TV shows (46%) and full-length movies (41%) online than they did in 2016.
When asked why they prefer watching content through an internet-connected device instead of cable TV, the top answer was “the flexibility to start/stop a program whenever they want” (68%), followed closely by “fewer commercials” (58%) and “there’s more content available” (53%).
While more people still watch online video on a desktop/laptop (54% daily) vs. a smartphone (43% daily), smartphones are becoming an increasingly popular way to consume digital content, with over two-thirds (68%) of Canadians saying they “can’t live without their smartphone” or “always keep it within arm’s reach.”
Over a third (34%) of Canadians say they will stop watching an online video if there’s even two buffering interruptions, according to the report, and one in five (22%) will give up after just one buffering delay. Three in four Canadians (74%) also expect an ad to last 15 seconds or less if it’s before an online video that’s under a minute.
