News

CRTC Releases Communications Monitoring Report

The CRTC has released the second annual Communications Monitoring Report 2009.  The nearly-300 page report is filled with data and charts that will generate considerable study and commentary.  Some of the points that jumped out at me:

  • Do-Not-Call: As of May 19th, there were over 6.8 million registrations, 145,000 complaints, and over 700 investigations.
  • Internet Access: 95% of Canadian households have access to fixed broadband. 91% to mobile broadband.  In 2008, virtually all Canadian households in urban centres could have access to broadband services, versus 78% of households that were in rural areas.
  • TV Viewership: TV viewing biggest drop in 12 – 17 age demographic down 5.9%.  Over 18 down 1.4%.
  • Internet use: 95% of 18-34 anglophones use the Internet; 91% of 35-49, 70% of over 50. Numbers slightly lower for francophones.
  • Accessing Music: "downloading music and streaming radio over the Internet have shown a steady decline in popularity among Anglophones, and appear to have stagnated among Francophones."
  • ISPs: Top 5 ISPs (Bell, Telus, Rogers, Videotron, Shaw) capture 76% of Internet access revenues. 69% of households subscribe to broadband.
  • Price comparison w/US, UK, France, Australia. Good pricing for low wireless & broadband usage, avg for mid-to-high usage.  Canada lowest number of wireless subscribers/100 inhabitants.  High broadband, but low mobile broadband.

More on the report on the days ahead.

4 Comments

  1. less than one half of one percent?
    145,000 complaints, and over 700 investigations

    Is it any wonder it doesn’t work when less than one half of one percent of complaints are investigated? Admittedly, I am not accounting for duplicate reports wherein many reports could be wrapped up into a single investigation. Perhaps it would be more useful to/for the CRTC to break down that 145K complaints into how many alleged individual violations there are.

  2. Great find
    Hi Michael,

    Great find – I’m always looking for reliable data on the media industry in Canada and this will likely prove to be an exceptionally valuable resource (I admit that I’ve read about 3 of the 300 pages).

    Bill Wittur
    Bottree.com

  3. Competition?
    Glad to see that they noticed that the top five isp’s earn most of the revenues. Maybe this will get them to place a bit more consideration to the lack of actual competition in the market.

  4. Why isn’t the boardband cable market opened up?
    There is even less competition in this area.