Individuals who’ve relocated to Canada in the last five years are statistically less likely to own a TV than those born in Canada, according to a study from Media Technology Monitor (MTM).

MTM has released its second annual MTM Newcomers study, which focuses on the media behaviours as well as the leisure and settlement activities of people who have arrived in Canada in the past five years.

The research suggests newcomers to Canada are 42% less likely to own a TV set than Canadian-born individuals (64% vs 91%, respectively), and are 52% less likely than Canadian-born consumers to subscribe to a paid TV service, such as cable or satellite.

An overwhelming 88% of newcomers, however, have at least one subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service, such as Netflix or Prime Video. Almost 10% subscribe to a foreign-language SVOD, such as Hotstar, iQiyi or Shahid. Less than half of all newcomers feel they are reflected in Canadian programming, while only one in seven say they don’t feel reflected at all.

Virtually all newcomers own a smartphone, and the majority (60%) purchased or acquired a cellphone after arriving in Canada, according to the study. Flanker brands such as Fido, Virgin and Freedom are popular service providers for newcomers as they tend to be more economical and flexible than the larger providers. One in five newcomers already looked into cellphone providers prior to their arrival in Canada.

Facebook is the most popular network among newcomers at 75%, followed by WhatsApp (64%) and Instagram (61%). Newcomers are much more likely to consume a variety of online audio rather than traditional platforms. Music on YouTube is streamed by 80% of newcomers versus 49% of Canadian-born individuals, and music streaming services such as Spotify are also more likely to be listened to by newcomers. The smartphone is by far the most popular device for newcomers when it comes to consuming audio.

Three quarters of newcomers consume news content each month and are less likely to get their news from traditional sources. Social media is by far the most popular source for news among newcomers (40%) — they are more than twice as likely as Canadian-born respondents (17%) to consider this their main source. English is the most common language used to consume news, although close to one in four spend more than half of their time consuming news in other languages.

A version of the story originally appeared in Media in Canada

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