Create. Access.
Watch.

Movies on computers. TV on cell phones. High-definition video and digital broadcasting. What Canadians watch—and how they watch it—is changing almost daily. Interactivity is an expectation. Viewers no longer just consume content: they create it, upload it and share it with the world. Boundaries are vanishing, and borders, too. Canadian artists continue to gain stature and earn recognition internationally. Canadian media companies are merging and converging to bundle multiple modes of content creation and delivery. The landscape is changing, presenting new challenges and opportunities to Canadian producers—and giving viewers an unprecedented choice of screens through which they can access content that answers their interests.

Snapshots

  • Broadcasting is ubiquitous: 99% of Canadians own at least one television and one radio.5
  • Canadians watch 26.8 hours of television a week.6
  • 78% of Canadians—and more specifically 96% of Canadian youth aged 12 to 17—use the Internet.7
  • Canadians spend an average of 17 hours per week connected to the Internet, an increase of 4 hours per week from 2004.8
  • 53 % of Canadian teens aged 12 to 17 visit social networking sites.9
  • Downloading and media streaming are on the rise among Internet users: 40% for online videos, 20% for movies and 17% for television.10

When screens converge

Canadian creators are taking advantage of digital tools to enhance their work and reach broader audiences. The access points to cultural products are multiplying, with content tailored to each platform—television, the PC and mobile devices. In 2007, Xenophile Media won a Canadian New Media Award and an International Emmy for its extended reality game based on the popular television show ReGenesis. Created with funding from the Canada New Media Fund (CNMF), the game uses the Web, e‑mail, SMS and video on demand to create experiences without boundaries, enticing fans to solve online puzzles based on clues embedded in episodes of the TV show. MarbleMedia Interactive’s Shorts in Motion: The Art of Seduction, another project funded by the CNMF, is a series of original short films written and directed for mobile phones. From the series’ Web site, users can download the movies onto their mobile devices—and also submit text or e-mail anecdotes, send an e-card or participate in a seduction quiz. This project won a 2007 Silver W3 Award for Movie and Film, the Banff World Television’s Mobile Program Enhancement Award 2007, and the GSM Association Global Mobile Award 2007 for the Best Made for Mobile Video Service category.

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