TV in Canada Surviving Quite Nicely

[jon]

As Internet video grows, offline TV business still alive and well
Jameson Berkow
Financial Post
Jun 2, 2011 – 5:40 PM ET
ref. - http://business.financialpost.com/2011/ ... -and-well/

Canadians are world leaders when it comes to watching films and television online, yet the bottom lines of traditional broadcasters appear to be doing just fine.

Revenues for private conventional television grew 9% from $1.97-billion in 2009 to about $2.15-billion in 2010, according to data released by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on Thursday. For cable and satellite television, revenue jumped more than 11% between 2009 and 2010; from $3.11-billion to $3.46-billion.

Even the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which is partially funded by Canadian tax dollars, made far more money selling advertising last year then it did the year before. The national public broadcaster increased ad revenues in 2010 by 14.1% or $338.8-million, the CRTC report said.

The growth comes as offline television purveyors have been waging a war for Canadian eyeballs against new Internet-based rivals. Since Netflix Inc. brought its streaming video service to Canada last September, more than 800,000 Canadians have agreed to foot the $8 monthly bill for access.

That is just the beginning. Not only is Netflix expecting to break one million Canadian subscribers within the next few months, but there are an increasing number of ways for Canadians to access content from other major video streaming outfits as well.

Netflix has already been crowned King of North American Internet traffic and its reign is likely to continue for some time, with videos expected to account for more than half of all Canadian consumer Internet traffic by the end of this year.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is also moving towards becoming an original content provider. Having recently acquired first screening rights to a television series called House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey and directed by David Fincher, Netflix is attempting to position itself as a viable alternative to more costly cable or satellite subscriptions.

As Internet broadcasters act more and more like conventional broadcasters, the conventional broadcasters want their Internet-based rivals to be regulated the same as them. Canada’s Supreme Court agreed in March to decide whether Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that distribute videos should be required to pay for Canadian content production, just as conventional broadcasters are required to do.

Another impediment to the online video shift — one specifically decried by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings — is the growing popularity of usage-based billing (UBB) policies among Canadian ISPs. Watching video is by far the most bandwidth-gobbling online activity, and Internet providers have begun implementing arbitrary monthly download limits in what they argue is an attempt to manage data congestion on their networks.

Now that consumers are buying less standalone television sets amid so many other options for viewing content, the issue of how the 75 year-old broadcasting industry will adapt itself to remain profitable in the Internet age remains a multi-billion-dollar question without an answer.

In the meantime, Canadians seem willing to keep on paying their monthly TV bills.

For now anyways.

[hagopian]

I wonder for how much longer, shall us peons put up with shaw crammed signals and pricing plans that you need a GAAP certified lawyer to understand.
My guess?
Leakage to Netflix, You Tube and soon Google, Amazon, Msoft and other vid offerings will eat at the above line costs.

Nice to see SUN news crash and burn. The worst TV I have ever seen in my life. Sort of Balkan TV. "And now, with the news, and half her chest hanging out, here is Svetlana with today's Factory report from Belgrade...."

[jon]

Interesting to see how "different" the Canadian Press report is, of the same News story:

TORONTO - Only about one in 10 plugged-in Canadians are viewing Internet content on their televisions but the trend could soon "grow rapidly'' since it's finally becoming easy to do, suggests a new report.

Early adopters who are already using their TVs to get online are enthusiastic users of the technology, suggests survey results from March parsed by the Media Technology Monitor, a product of CBC/Radio-Canada.

Those who can get the web on their TVs are averaging more than four hours a week accessing Internet content on their big screen, according to the MTM report entitled "Internet TV is Changing: The Rise of Netflix.''

"It's pretty amazing the way that the Internet is moving right to the television set and it's primarily to watch video,'' said Mark Allen, CBC's director of strategic analysis, adding that about a third of Canadian households already have the ability to connect a TV to the Internet.

While it was once complicated to push video and audio signals from a computer onto a TV, there are now a number of options that allow it to be done easily. Some newer TVs have Internet capabilities built right in, while video game consoles and a growing number of standalone products - such as Apple TV and Boxee - also make it easy for a TV to find online content.

Given that Canada already watches more online video than any other nation - comScore estimates the average Canadian user watched about 251 videos and 17.2 hours overall in March - it's not hard to imagine that viewing web video on TV could become very popular.

Netflix's launch has pushed many consumers to figure out how to get the Internet on their TVs and the MTM report suggests large numbers are now hooked.

Netflix subscribers watched about four hours less of broadcast TV in March compared to the average Canadian, and of the 25.4 hours the average Netflix user spent online about six hours was through their TV.

Most Netflix streaming (65 per cent) is being done through TVs, compared to just 23 per cent on computers and nine per cent on tablets, the MTM estimates.

Thirty per cent of Netflix users said they were streaming through the site daily, 40 per cent said they logged on weekly and 14 per cent used the site monthly.

The MTM survey suggests 60 per cent of the Canadians who have tried Netflix stayed on as paying customers and 30 per cent eventually cancelled. The other 10 per cent of the surveyed Netflix users were still using a free trial account.

But there's still little evidence that Netflix could be causing so-called cord cutting, or cancelling of cable or satellite TV services.

According to the report, just three per cent of Netflix subscribers did not have a TV plan.

"If there was an online service, Netflix or another operator, offering the same content you get from cable or satellite then consumers would probably be more compelled,'' Allen said.

[Russ_Byth]

Interesting to see how "different" the Canadian Press report is, of the same News story:

TORONTO - Only about one in 10 plugged-in Canadians are viewing Internet content on their televisions but the trend could soon "grow rapidly'' since it's finally becoming easy to do, suggests a new report.

Can someone please tell me what channel the Internet is on? I can't seem to find it.