Canadians keep hanging up on home telephone services
Tuesday, September 04, 2012 by: SooToday.com Staff
NEWS RELEASE
CANADIAN RADIO-TELEVISION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
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CRTC issues annual report on the state of the Canadian communications industry
Today, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued its annual Communications Monitoring Report providing an overview of the Canadian communications sector.
In 2011, the average Canadian family spent more than $180 per month on communications services.
“This report is used to gauge whether the communications industry is meeting the needs of Canadians as consumers, citizens and creators,” said Jean-Pierre Blais, chairman of the CRTC. “The information it contains will help them make more informed decisions in the marketplace and enhance their participation in our public proceedings.”
Canadians are consuming more content
In 2011, 1,183 radio services and 702 television services were offered to Canadians.
Despite the availability of content on digital platforms, Canadians spent more time watching television and listening to the radio.
On a weekly basis, they watched an average of 28.5 hours of television, up from 28 hours in 2010, and listened to an average of 17.7 hours of radio, up from 17.6 hours the previous year.
Canadians also actively consumed digital media content.
Typical users watched 2.8 hours of Internet television per week, an increase from 2.4 hours in 2010.
Four percent of Canadians report only watching television programming online, while 4 percent watched programming on a smartphone and 3 percent on a tablet.
Additionally, 22 percent of anglophones and 17 percent of francophones streamed the signal of an AM or FM station over the Internet.
“Canadians are enthusiastic consumers of creative content, whether it is offered on television, radio or through digital platforms. The fact that they are spending more time watching or listening to programming is good news for Canadian creators,” Mr. Blais added.
In 2011, the broadcasting industry contributed $3.1 billion to the creation and promotion of Canadian programming, an increase of $132 million from the previous year.
Canadians are more connected
Seventy-eight percent of the 13.4 million households in Canada had an Internet subscription.
Canadians continued to migrate to faster Internet services: the percentage of households with download speeds of at least five megabits per second rose from 51 percent in 2010 to 54 percent in 2011.
The average monthly bill for broadband Internet services increased by $1.80, or from $36.99 in 2010 to $38.79 in 2011.
By the end of 2011, the number of Canadians subscribing to wireless services grew by 6 percent to 27.4 million.
Newer competitors, who offered their services to more than half of the population, doubled their market share from 2 percent to 4 percent of subscribers.
At the same time, the larger companies introduced faster wireless networks, also known as Long Term Evolution or
LTE networks, to 45 percent of the population.
In 2011, Canadians paid on average $57.98 per month for wireless services, which was roughly the same amount as the previous year’s monthly total of $57.86.
The number of subscribers to home telephone services continued to decrease in 2011, falling by 2.7 percent to 12.2 million.
The average monthly bill of a telephone line was slightly lower, from $31.35 in 2010 to $31.23 in 2011.
The number of Canadian households that subscribe to basic television service increased by 2.2 percent to 11.8 million, equivalent to 89.6 percent of all households.
Cable companies served the majority, or 69.9 percent of subscribers, while satellite companies served 24.5 percent and companies that deliver television programming through telephone lines (known as an Internet Protocol Television service) served 5.6 percent of subscribers.
The average television subscriber paid $61.86 per month, an increase from $59.73 in 2010.
Communications revenues continue to rise
The overall revenues for the communications industry climbed to $59.3 billion in 2011, a 3.3 percent increase from $57.4 billion in 2010.
In 2011, these revenues accounted for 4.6 percent of Canada’s gross domestic product.
Revenues for broadcasting services grew by 5.5 percent to $16.6 billion, while those for telecommunications services increased by 2.5 percent to $42.7 billion.
Communications Monitoring Report
Additional information
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