From Streaming to Gaming: Why Canada's Screen-Time Economy Is Fragmenting

Screens being the main source of entertainment in Canada is nothing new, what with TV taking the 20th century by storm. But what we’re seeing today is something quite different, in that Canadian consumers are dividing their attention across multiple screens, rather than focusing solely on one. This trend is of course fuelled by smartphone ownership, but the devices themselves are only part of the picture that defines viewer behaviors today.

Social Media’s Inescapable Grip

At least 37 million Canadians are active social media users, meaning well over for fifths of the population spend a significant chunk of their time scrolling through feeds on Facebook and Tiktok, as well as the army of other apps that are out there in competition for their slice of the screen-time economy. And there’s good reason for companies to want in on this market, as ad revenues are vast and growing, alongside average hours spent on social media daily.

Of course, this also feeds into the fragmentation of screen time, because people who are into social media don’t just have one account on one platform. It’s normal to sit on the couch watching TV while also having phone in hand to flick between different social platforms, whether passively consuming content or actively engaging with friends and audiences online. This division of attention is why social media platforms pour so much effort into user engagement, as they really don’t want people heading elsewhere if they can help it.

Mobile Gaming’s Power

Interactive entertainment on portable devices is another cause for the fragmentation of Canada’s screen-time economy. Mobile games have come on in leaps and bounds in terms of the technology underpinning them and the experiences they offer, often matching full-blown consoles for graphical fidelity and complexity.

Similarly, the online casino market has gone from strength to strength in the past few years post-legalization, with sites like Canada’s Impressario Casino cementing iGaming as a a second-screen pastime of note. It’s an example of how consumer trends in this sphere are as much influenced by regulation as they are customer demand.

Streaming’s Second-Screen Content Design

Canada, like many other parts of the world, has an attention division issue that content platforms have to address, and streaming services are doing this in a very knowing way. Netflix, for example, has been known to produce shows and movies that are written in such a way that assumes the viewers at home aren’t giving their full attention to the action at all times. That’s why you’ll get regular plot summaries and character name mentions inserted into the dialogue, as a means of keeping people up to speed if they’re also checking their phone to browse social media or play a game in the midst of their streaming session.

So, the technical reasons for the screen-time economy changing and fragmenting so significantly are well established and factored into the strategies of digital platforms as they exist today. Whether this is a permanent shift remains to be seen, but consumer habits are unlikely to revert to the old ways of consuming and interacting with content, saving major regulatory intervention.

D. Welsh writes on tech and digital currency.