MUMBAI: The average adult Canadian watched over 1,240 hours of television and an estimated 20,000 television commercials in 2004 based according to research conducted by Digital Home Canada.
Digital Home Canada arrived at those numbers after an in-depth analysis of the CRTC Broadcasting Policy Monitoring Report (BPMR) 2005, information from the Television Bureau of Canada, and the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM).
The numbers mean that the average Canadian adult spent more than 166 hours last year watching television commercials. This is equivalent to the number of hours worked in a month by the average Canadian worker!
According to the CRTC's BPM Report, Canadians aged 2+ watched television on average 21.4 hours per week in 2004 and over 1,110 hours of television annually. Contrary to the complaints of many parents, younger Canadians actually watch considerably less television than adults which results in the average adult Canadian adult Canadian watching considerably more than 21 hours per week. (See chart below for a breakdown by age)
The Television Bureau of Canada (TVB), on its website says that the average Canadian Female 18+ watched just over 25 hours a week of television in the Fall of 2004 while the average Canadian male 18+ watched just under 21 hours a week. Combined the TVB says the average Canadian adult watches 3 hours and 24 minutes of television daily or more than 1,240 hours annually.
WOf course not all of those hours are spent watching commercial television. That 1,240 hours also includes time spent watching non-commercial television such as Video-On Demand, pay television and commercial free broadcasters such as PBS and TVO.
Accounting for the time spent watching non-commercial television, Digital Home Canada estimates that the average adult Canadian watched over 900 hours of commercial television in 2004. A typical hour of commercial television in Canada contains 12 minutes of commercials therefore those 900 hours of commercial television contained over 11,000 minutes of commercials. Since most television commercials are 30 seconds in length that 11,000 minutes of commercials translates into over 22,000 commercials annually.
