Apparently Canada loves online video – but do we really know why?

On a glorious spring Friday in Toronto, it seems particularly relevant to take a look at some numbers for online video viewing that were released last week by ComScore for February 2009.  Remember February?  When it was cold and we were all curled up in our blankets with our laptops watching videos… apparently?

Well according to the stats from a new ComScore report tracking February viewing figures, Canada is the world’s top online video viewing country by percentage. The average online video viewer in the Great White North watched 10 hours of video online in Feb., an increase of 53% from the previous year. Nearly 88% of the total Canadian web population (that’s about 21 million people for those scoring at home) viewed online video in February, the highest penetration of the five countries currently reported by comScore Video Metrix, followed by France and Germany at 82%, the U.K. at 81% and the U.S. at 76%.

Nothing beats online video in the Great White North!

Now I’ve written about online video in this space before.  And being on top of this list (is it an honour, I’m not sure?!?) brings up a couple of noteworthy thoughts on a favourite subject of mine.

Perhaps most notably, in spite of these numbers, Canadian broadcast networks have rolled out relatively weak online video offerings.  This is  especially true when compared to their US counterparts who, with the recent addition of Disney to the fold, are beginning to threaten YouTube’s dominance with their Hulu portal.  Interestingly, Hulu, the world’s fastest growing video portal, isn’t even available (by legal means) to Canadian audiences.  But still, our viewership numbers grew.  So does this spell opportunity for Canadian broadcasters?  These broadcasters have a lot of content both old and new that could really round out a portal for Canadian audience – as a tribute to Hulu and the great white north, let’s call it “Iglu”.  So would we be able to drive our numbers even higher if CBC, CTV, CanWest, Corus and Astral (or even a couple of them) could get together and populate Iglu with some current offerings, some US shows they could get rights to, and of course some classics like Degrassi, Beachcombers and Fraggle Rock?!?!  I think they’d have my attention.

The other interesting piece to consider here is the Canadian climate, mixed with our comparatively high level of broadband penetration.  I think it’s worth noting that those statistics were for February, the time of year when we Canadians are absolutely sick of winter and just want to hide under blankets until it leaves us alone.  Now that the online video market is maturing, it will be interesting to see how these numbers skew as the year progresses and the weather improves.  Of course, just as with conventional television, it should be no surprise to see the overall levels of viewership decline, but will this effect be seen more in Canada than in places where the winter climates aren’t as harsh?

Online video is still a young medium and it stands to reason that it will, in the end, share some commonalities with conventional television.  That said, it is a much more portable, accessible and bite-sized form of media, which is sure to help it develop distinct characteristics of its own.  I for one, will be very interested to see what those are – especially up here in Canada, eh?

So why do you watch online video?  Is it to escape Canadian Content on our networks?  Is it to keep you busy while you’re hibernating for the winter?  Will you watch less video this summer?  Would you watch my “Iglu” portal??

I’m sure ComScore will be keeping us up to date, but I’d love to hear from all of you.  We’re on top of the world here Canada!  Let’s find out why…

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