Watching the box

The early days of television created a mass audience. Millions of Canadians retreated to their living rooms to watch the same television shows and the same commercials at the same time every week. Today, the way we watch television has changed.

The advent of the video cassette recorder, for example, allowed people to record programs and watch them whenever they wished.By 2001, the VCR was a fixture in more than 91% of Canadian homes. DVD players have also made their mark on home entertainment—20% of households had a DVD player in 2001.

Canadians have also seen the introduction of a myriad of specialty channels. Channels catering to specific interests such as news, history, sports, music and comedy now arrive by cable and wireless services, competing for our leisure time.

Growth in these specialty channels has helped fuel overall cable sales. In 1982, 4.9 million Canadians subscribed to cable television. By 1999, the number of cable subscribers peaked at over 8 million; however, that number fell to 7.9 million in 2001. Since the late 1990s, growth in the number of cable subscribers has been challenged by intense competition from satellite and other wireless operators, who are aggressively marketing their services in an attempt to lure subscribers away from cable. Wireless operators have spent more on promotion than the cable industry in recent years, and this new competitive environment resulted in a loss of customers for the cable industry.