Audience Results - Digital Media

USAGE DATA FOR DIGITAL CONTENT FROM PLATFORMS OTHER THAN TELEVISION

The following tables report digital media (DM) usage for all projects reporting in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. 

The metrics identified in this report are as follows: total visits, total unique visitors, within each language and content type. The reporting period uses data from Adobe Analytics (1 April 2018 – 31 March 2019). 

COMPLIANCE – PRODUCTION (Launched)

At present, the majority (87%) of all production projects that have launched (in both streams) have either had their tags successfully implemented or have reached their natural end of life (EOL) cycle.  In total 13% of launched DM projects were unable to implement the Adobe tag due to technical challenges.

CONVERGENT STREAM – PRODUCTION (Funded)

The funding and exhibition of these projects are cyclical in nature.  Within the last seven years, an average of two hundred new projects were approved each year with a 30% fall-off annually from the earliest funding years due to projects which have completed their exhibition and reached their End-of-Life (EOL) stage. These EOL projects represent just under a third of all DM projects funded in the convergent production program.

There are currently 560 distinct applications tagged and reporting data.  In addition, 426 newly funded projects (mostly within the last 2 years) are making their way through the building and development stage of their projects life cycle and will soon be eligible to install the Adobe tracking code. 

Since the inception of the CMF in 2010, only 5% of funded convergent projects have been unable to successfully install the Adobe tag due to technical reasons. 

EXPERIMENTAL STREAM – PRODUCTION (Funded)

Experimental stream production projects are greenlit at a ratio of 1:4 versus convergent projects and add an average of 43 new projects per year vs approximately 200 on the convergent side.  And while both streams essentially produce “digital products” for exhibition, each program’s emphasis, qualification and administration of projects are vastly different. 

Convergent DM projects are designed to appeal to a broad cross-section of the (mass-medium) television audience.  Experimental projects tend to have a more nuanced appeal as these projects are expected to demonstrate a high degree of innovation. Often consumer usage to experimental projects are accessed behind subscriber-based-platforms while some projects focus on B2B users.

Many of the funded innovative experimental projects are web-based games that are available online via specific subscription platforms such a Steam (VALVE), Nintendo, Sony and others. This stream also includes native application games hosted on Apple and Google, along with some software programs for consumer use. 

In the 2018-2019 reporting window, 61 projects are currently tagged and 54 are reporting data. The oldest projects fall-off at a rate of 40% (an average of 41 projects per year).  Currently two-thirds of the experimental projects reporting are used on mobile phone and tablets, with the majority being downloadable and native applications. 

There are currently 94 experimental projects (with the option of going to market later than the required 18 months for convergent DM projects) that have not yet launched. These projects are currently in the building and development stages of their projects life-cycle and are expected to report data in the near future. 

From 2010 to present, a quarter of all experimental stream production projects have completed their life-cycle.  Due to the technical challenges of installing 3rd party tracking codes on subscription based web and console platforms with their own proprietary measuring systems, 22% (88) of all launched experimental projects have been unable to successfully implement the Adobe Analytics tag. 

 

LANGUAGE AND CONTENT TYPE

CONVERGENT STREAM – PRODUCTION (Visits)

Within the convergent stream the top 10 projects attract 80% of all visits to CMF DM projects, with the top 2 (English) projects responsible for 65% of all visits overall across all languages and content types. 

DM projects funded in 2016 or later are the most visited.  However, overall visits to these projects taper significantly when television component is no longer airing. This is most noticeable in the French market as the DM components tend to correlate with its television program on an episodic level (i.e. the number of visits dip significantly after each episode airs) while the English market visits to DM projects remain relatively stable throughout the television season but then drop off at season’s end.

This suggests that DM components require their TV counterparts in order to remain relevant.

ENGLISH

Two projects alone are responsible for 86% of all visits to English DM projects.  The first was KIDS CBC Studio K website portal with just over 9M visits. Followed by The Beaverton website with over 8M visits. In total, English-language projects attracted just over 20.3M visits. With the majority of views concentrated within two projects, comparatively very few visits were registered to the vast majority of other CMF –financed projects. 

FRENCH

The majority of visits to French language DM projects are also derived from a fairly small percentage of projects. 18% (36 projects) are responsible for 90% of the visits, which is slightly less concentrated than in the English market.   Top 5 visited projects such as the 2016-2017 & 2017-2018 funded Infoman (SRC), 2017-2018 District 31 (SRC), 2017-2018 Unité 9 (SRC) and 2016-2017 Like-moi (Télé-Québec), are each tied to projects that individually perform well on the television side.  However, these DM projects dip significantly in visits when their television programs are in repeats or are no longer airing. Rich Interactive Media projects overall continue to accumulate the most interest by attracting 89% of the total visits projects in this category.  Overall, the French-language DM projects garnered 6.5 M visits.  

ABORIGINAL

Content types in Aboriginal languages recorded 71K visits overall. Combined, Rich Interactive Media content types did best in this language category with 39K session visits followed by games at 32K.

DIVERSE LANGUAGES

Content Types in diverse languages earned 69K overall visits. Within the content types measured in diverse languages, visits to Rich interactive Media projects were the highest with 59K.  65% (38K) of the visits to RIM projects was derived from the Russian-language Documentary-website project That Trojan Jazz.

NB: Rich Interactive Media (Inclusive): Multimedia content that combines story telling with visual technologies where user participation and interactivity are successfully met through a fully rich immersive experience. Inclusive experiences usually begin on a single linear path, using levels to advance to a predetermined destination or goal.

Rich Interactive Media (Non-Inclusive): Multimedia content that combines visual technologies however, is not structured to tell a complete story. Non-inclusive experiences require user participation and interactivity that is non-linear. The experience may also be segmented into unrelated, multiple content types (CMF-eligible).

Convergent Projects
1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019
CMF Media Analytics (Adobe Analytics)

 

EXPERIMENTAL STREAM - PRODUCTION (Visits)

The top 5 projects account for 65% of all visits to experimental projects and though this still reflects a concentration in visits, it is less pronounced than what is seen within the convergent stream. This is likely due to the wide variety of delivery platforms on which these projects are made available. While the majority (96%) of convergent projects reporting are website based, the platform breakdown of experimental projects is 41% Downloadable, 38% Websites, and 21% Applications.  In addition, active projects in the experimental stream remain relatively small (45 projects on average) and tends to expire at a faster rate (10% more) than convergent DM projects.

Overall, the top project Rad Boarding a bilingual- downloadable- game, was responsible for 25% of all experimental stream visits.    

ENGLISH

English-language content types tallied over 110K visits. Within the content types measured, a rise in visits were mainly attributed to the 2013-2014 (funded) Rich Interactive mobile application Biba Mobile and the emergence of the 2016-2017 (funded) web series project Nuclear Reaction.  

FRENCH

French experimental projects garnered visits at 63K which more than doubled in visits from one year ago. This growth was primarily due to the web series project Têtes à claques, volume 5 which brought 83% of the total visits to this category.

BILINGUAL

Bilingual projects in the experimental stream recorded just over 430K visits. Overall, Games and Rich Interactive Media content saw the most activity. The 2012-2013 Game Rad Boarding and 2013/14 Rich Interactive Media application Brain Cloud & Foundation combined made up 54% of the visits within this category.

 

Experimental Projects
1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019
CMF Media Analytics (Adobe Analytics)

 

USAGE BY GEOGRAPHIC REGION

 

Convergent Projects
1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019
CMF Media Analytics (Adobe Analytics)

Experimental Projects
1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019
CMF Media Analytics (Adobe Analytics)

Digital Media Users by Region

As Convergent projects are commissioned by Canadian broadcasters, it is not surprising that Canadians represent the largest user group with 72% of the total visits to convergent projects, which grew by 8% over the previous year.  This growth came primarily from the Rest of the World which saw just under a 9 percentage point drop in visits to just over 12% while visits from the USA remained relatively stable. 

Experimental stream projects, on the other hand, continue to show a significant global reach as half of all visits originated from the Rest of the World, which is consistent with the previous year.  However, between Canada and the United States, there was 4 percentage point transfer in the volume of visits from each region where 23% (-4) now originates from the United States with 27% (+4) derived from visits within Canada.

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