In 2019, adults in Canada will spend an average of 4 hours, 55 minutes on digital devices, compared with 4 hours, 54 minutes with traditional media, such as TV, radio and print.
Consumers’ time spent with digital media, which includes all online activities, will grow 2.6% this year. This growth has been in steady decline since 2011, when eMarketer began its forecast.
Conversely, traditional media consumption will drop 2.5% in 2019, the eighth consecutive year of declines.
Video is a major driver of growth in digital consumption. In fact, video time is directly replacing TV time. Average daily video time this year will jump by 5 minutes to 1 hour, 32 minutes, reaching nearly one-third of total (digital video and TV) viewing time. Traditional TV time will drop by 5 minutes to 3 hours, 4 minutes.
“More than any other country in our global forecast, digital video time is greatest in Canada in relation to TV time,” said Paul Briggs, eMarketer’s senior analyst on Canada. “This is due to the immense popularity of Netflix and YouTube among Canadians.”
Mobile devices and rich experiences in apps are also key drivers of increased digital time. Media consumption on mobile now exceeds 3 hours daily, on par with TV.
“Mobile’s ascent is not just a device story, it’s a services story,” Briggs said. “Digital services like social feeds are inherently mobile, and video platforms now deliver highly watchable content on smaller screens like smartphones and tablets.”