A year in review, courtesy of MTM’s Research Team

The Media Technology Monitor (MTM) is Canada’s premier research product in the area of technology ownership and use. Based on 12,000 telephone interviews annually, the MTM has spoken with over 100,000 Canadians (equally split between Anglophones and Francophones) over the past decade making it the most accurate and comprehensive media technology tracking survey of its kind.

This year has been an especially exciting year. With over 30 reports being published and dozens of topics being touched upon, some of the current topics include:

• Social television
• Four screen Canadians
• Consumption of news and sports
• Smartphones: iPhone, Blackberry, Android
• Use of game consoles
• The rise of Netflix and tablet computers

With 2012 coming to a close, the team worked together to select some of (what we think are) the most fascinating findings:

1. TV and the Internet go hand-in-hand – Canadians are increasingly multitasking online while watching TV and one-in-five are considered heavy multi-taskers.
2. Social TV saves Live TV?  Not Yet.  Canadians are definitely social networking, however, few Canadians are talking about TV on Social Networks while they’re watching the show (6%).
3. Portable media technologies have taken hold of Canadians, Tablet and Smartphone ownership has increased significantly over the past year.
4. Game consoles aren’t just for gaming anymore – Canadians are embracing game consoles and it’s the device used most often to connect the internet to a TV.  Netflix is the primary video source on game console.
5. YouTube rules online music – Streaming music on YouTube is the most popular by far with 42% of Canadians doing so in the past month.
6. More Canadians are turning to the Internet for TV, but not exclusively.  Two-thirds of Canadians watched some type of online video, however, only a small proportion of Canadians are completely abandoning traditional TV for online (3%).

We’re looking forward to 2013 – which is gearing up to be another exciting year for technology and research! If you’d like to learn more about these reports or the MTM you can visit the website.

-Mark Allen, Director, Research and Strategic Analysis, CBC/Radio-Canada