A harbinger of things to come? An anomaly? A Christmas blip?

We may not know the reasons yet, but we do know the result: in the final quarter of 2009, the number of hours Canadians spent using the Internet surpassed the number of hours they spent watching TV for the first time since Ipsos Reid started tracking such data in the first quarter of 2007.

Canadians spent an average of 18.1 hours a week online in the last three months of ’09, a little over an hour more than they spent watching TV. That represents a spike in Internet usage over the year prior, in which Canadians averaged 14.9 hours online. However, the number of hours watching TV increased as well, from an average of 15.8 hours to 16.9.

The other media in the study — newspapers, radio, magazines — remained stable. (A finding reflected for newspapers in last week’s NADbank report.)

As found in previous reports, demographics play a role in how media is consumed, but the differences are far less pronounced online than in television. Eighteen- to 34-year-olds spend about 20 hours a week online, while those over 35 average 18.

‘The data indicates that not only are people of all ages spending more and more time online, but it also points to a shift in how online Canadians are consuming media and where they are spending their free time,’ study author Mark Laver said in a release. ‘Today, online Canadians are finding a myriad of entertainment options available to them within the walls of their homes. While some entertainment content has simply shifted from television to online, the Internet is also providing new content to Canadians.’

From Media in Canada