Yesterday, comScore released its 2010 Canada Digital Year in Review. The whitepaper is a free download [pdf, 4.6MB]
It is 44 pages filled with data on how Canadians are consuming digital media and it provides an important snapshot of 2010 with comparisons to the previous year.
- How are Canadians consuming digital media, and how does this compare to other countries?
- Which trends dominated the digital landscape in 2010?
- How does media consumption differ across age and gender segments?
- What trends are we seeing in the social networking space, and what impact does that have on email activity?
- How has digital advertising shifted in the last year, and how has social media played a part?
- Which content categories are serving up the most videos? Who’s watching online video in Canada?
- What is the current state of the search market?
- How will mobile media consumption in Canada stack up against other markets?
The headline – Canadians again are the world’s most engaged consumers of digital media, spending double the global average amount of time on-line and about 20% more than the runner-up, the United States.
It is an important and timely injection of hard data that challenges some of the assertions being made about of Canada’s digital economic capability. Given that usage tiers have been a part of mainstream Canadian retail internet for the past 4 years, comScore’s study appears to shoot down charges that usage sensitive pricing inhibits Canadians from heavy use of internet services. Further, the data gives credence to why Canadian internet access networks may be experiencing different levels of stress from that experienced in other countries. More study is required, but it is helpful to have new quantitative analysis added to what has recently been an emotional discussion.
I don’t think you can make a direct correlation between time spent online with data consumption.
Are Canadians consuming HD video (read Netflix) at a level comparable to our southern friends? Or are they busy updating their facebook profile? Big difference there.
Can you explain how you determined that this report “appears to shoot down charges that usage sensitive pricing inhibits Canadians from heavy use of internet services” when it makes no attempt to measure the usage that UBB is based on (ie GB/mo or similar metrics)? Video “consumption” is mentioned, but not in relation to any other country.