Netflix reaches 1 in 10 Canadians

Ten per cent of Canadians now use the video streaming service Netflix and those subscribers watch far more TV than average, a new survey suggests.

"Netflix viewers watch 28 per cent more TV than the average Canadian when including their Netflix viewing," said Mark Allen, director of research and strategic analysis at CBC/Radio-Canada, which ran the survey of 8,000 Canadians in the fall, a year after Netflix launched in Canada.

The findings came out of the Media Technology Monitor telephone survey of 4,000 anglophones and 4,000 francophones between October and December. The results are considered accurate within plus or minus 1.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Netflix, which launched in Canada in September 2010, streams movies and TV episodes over the internet to people's TVs via compatible devices such as video game consoles. The proportion of Canadians with access to Netflix has increased significantly from six per cent last spring.

The survey suggests Netflix subscribers spent an average of 5.6 hours watching Netflix per week.

Even though the service allows people to stream TV episodes and movies to other devices, such as tablets, subscribers did 74 per cent of their viewing on a TV. They spent 18 per cent of their time watching Netflix on a computer, just three per cent on their tablets and only two per cent on a smartphone.

While some analysts had predicted the rise of Netflix would take a big bite out of regular TV services — a phenomenon nicknamed "cord-cutting" — the survey results suggested the impact on cable and satellite has been small so far.

Netflix subscribers watched only slightly less regular TV than average – 13 hours per week, compared with 15.8 hours for non-Netflix subscribers.

Netflix subscribers were also only slightly less likely to subscribe to regular satellite and cable services (83 per cent) than non-Netflix subscribers (88 per cent).

Netflix charges $7.99 per month for a subscription.