As digital audio consumption increases, the advertising market in Canada is developing rapidly to reach new listeners.

Our annual lookahead for Canada highlights some growth areas for brand marketers as well as the mediascape that’s evolving to serve them.

Total time spent with media is more than 10 hours daily on average in Canada this year. In the years ahead, total time will shrink slightly, but digital formats will continue to steal time away from traditional media.

Time spent with digital audio surpassed that of radio for the first time in 2021.

Digital media formats are poised for growth in US and Canada: Total media consumption will decrease this year as pandemic-inspired habits calm.

Canada’s digital audio audience is growing faster than any other digital medium we track in the country, including digital video viewers and social media users. This year, digital audio will match terrestrial radio in listenership and exceed it in engagement, according to our forecasts.

Among digital audio listeners specifically, similar trends stand out. When we zoom in on the consumers who partake in digital audio, podcasts are disproportionately popular in places with high levels of English or Spanish fluency. In other regions of the world—even where digital audio has become extremely popular—podcast listenership is lagging.

In 2021, more than three-quarters of the time that US adults spent listening to ad-supported audio went to AM/FM radio. Podcasts trailed way behind traditional radio, capturing just 11% of ad-supported listening, while Pandora, SiriusXM, and Spotify each accounted for less than 10%. AM/FM radio held a majority share across adult age groups and was the most listened-to ad-supported audio not only in the car (88%), but also in the home (72%) and workplace (68%).

More than 80% of US music industry revenues came from streaming in 2021. Physical formats, like CDs and vinyl records, accounted for 11%, while the rest of the revenues stemmed from digital downloads and synchronization deals with music licensees.