• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, August 4, 2023

Like TV viewers in the U.S. and elsewhere, more Canadians are reducing their time with linear TV in favor of streaming in general and free, ad-supported services (FASTs) in particular.

That's according to a survey by LG Ad Solutions, which recently expanded its connected TV and cross-screen solution into the Canadian market. 

LG found eight in 10 internet-connected Canadians saying they have connected TVs. 

Its survey of 756 of these CTV owners, using an online panel balanced to the Canadian census, found 87% saying they pay for one or more streaming apps. 

But 61% said they prefer to stream free content rather than pay for subscriptions — up 5% versus a similar survey in this market in 2022. 

More than half (55%) said they are willing to cancel a subscription after watching the desired content, and 38% report cancelling a streaming service due to economic concerns. 

While only 14% reported adding a FAST in the past 12 months, just 4% reported dropping a FAST -- both about the same as last year. In comparison, 27% reported adding a paid subscription (down from 33% last year), and 22% reported dropping one (up from 17% last year). 

And while 57% reported watching about the same amount of cable or satellite TV now as 12 months ago, and 17% reported watching more, 26% said they’re watching less traditional pay-TV — up from 15% reporting the same in 2022. 

Thirty-nine percent reported watching FASTs, with nearly a quarter spending two to five hours per week watching these free services, 9% six to nine hours per week, and 6% 10 or more hours per week (chart top of page).

Looking at paid streaming service use, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ retained their top-three share positions, but Netflix dipped slightly, while Prime Video and Disney+ gained three and four percentage points, respectively. 

Canada’s Crave service was up by a point, to 23%, and Apple TV+ remained at 19%.

Paramount+ gained four points, to reach a 12% share, and Discovery+ two points, for a 9% share. Only YouTube Premium/YouTube TV showed a slight dip, from 18% to 15%.

Regarding advertising, nearly half (46%) of respondents said they feel that streaming ads are more relevant to them than traditional TV ads, and 33% said they pay more attention to ads they see while streaming.

Fully 90% report multitasking with a mobile device while watching (53% citing messaging, 34% game playing, and 31% shopping). 

And Canadians TV viewers are somewhat more likely than U.S. viewers to visit a product’s web site (44%), search it online (41%) and talk about the ad or the product (38%) after seeing a CTV ad.

On the content search front, nearly half (45%) report using the home page of the TV screen for content discovery purposes (16% more than U.S. viewers), while 31% use specific apps’  home pages for this purpose (21% fewer than U.S. viewers).