Internet now third most popular media in Canada

Canadians drawn to online media

According to the Canadian Media Usage Trends Study, the internet is now the third most popular media type among Canadian users, just behind TV and radio in terms of total weekly time spent by adults.

The study done by the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB), which takes an annual look at overall media rends for both French- and English-speaking Canadians, also found that English-speaking Canadians use the internet slightly more than their French speaking counterparts. The internet has a higher reach among younger demographics, the report says, and provides a “mirror image” of the age profile of other major media.

Some of the key findings include:

• In English Canada the internet has experienced growth in terms of share of time spent with media between 2001 (14 per cent) and 2007 (23 per cent). In this same time French Canada’s growth in share of time has increased from 11 per cent to 18 per cent
• Internet annual growth rates of time spent are in the mid single digits
• The internet is the number one medium in terms of percent share of weekly time spent for both 18-24 (40 per cent) and 25-34 (33 per cent) year olds in English Canada. In French Canada the internet is also the number one medium in terms of time spent for 18-24 year olds and is fast approaching radio and TV time spent levels among 25-34 year olds

The report also found that although 18-24 year olds may not be the target market for many advertisers today, Canadians carry their media habits with them as they age. So high levels of internet usage in the younger demographics will eventually become high levels for the 35-54 year old demographic and therefore advertisers whose target market is in that range have only a short time to learn how to use online media channels to drive results for theit brands.

“[The IAB report] boils down literally thousands of media facts and figures into the simple story of Canadians’ amazing and continued migration towards online media,” said Rob Young, senior vice president planning services, PHD Canada, which prepared the study for IAB Canada.