Canadians of all ages are overwhelmingly tuning in to Netflix for action, drama and comedy – but conventional networks are still capturing the eyes of online viewers, especially for news. That’s according to the latest Media Technology Monitor (MTM) report on genre preferences for online viewing.

The report, which is based on data collected from 4,000 English-speaking Canadians from the spring of 2016 to the fall of 2017, said respondents of all age groups favoured Canada’s national broadcaster, CBC, for its online news content, followed by CTV, City and Global’s streamers.

The MTM tracked which genres Canadians of different ages watched most on different online platforms. The MTM ranked the popularity of different networks for various genres, however it did not give specific percentages on audience shares.

While action/drama shows (classified by the MTM as a single genre) was the most favoured and comedy was the second-most viewed for Canadians age 18 to 50, news became more commonly viewed among demographics in the 50 to 65 and older range. The news genre came in second behind action/drama for the 50 to 64 demographic, and taking the lead for those over 65. Conversely, comedy is tied for most popular with millennials, but is watched less frequently with older age groups.

Online docs are at a middle ground across all age groups, while online sports viewing tracks low for all demos.

Generally, Netflix wins for action/drama and comedy across age groups, while its action and comedy share was also higher than other networks.

While 18- to 34-year-olds turn to Netflix for action and drama streaming, they’re more likely to turn to YouTube for their news and documentary content.

Gen X (35 to 49-year-old) still favoured Netflix for scripted content, they were more likely than any other age group to also view action/drama and comedy content on conventional networks such as City, CTV and Global. They also watched most documentaries on Netflix, followed by YouTube and the CBC.

Boomers (50- to 64-year-olds) favour City for action and drama, and those over 65 favour CBC, CTV and Global for news.

Sports were low across most networks, however CBC had the highest share of online sports viewers. Demographically, men and women both commonly watch action and drama with online news and sports content being favoured by men over women.