More Canadians are cutting cable and turning to streaming services

Apr 20 2017, 4:14 am

Canadians are cutting out cable and subscribing to online video streaming services such as Netflix, according to a new report by the Convergence Research Group.

According to the report, Canadian TV and cable subscribers are on the decline.

“We estimate 2016 saw a decline of 220,000 Canadian TV subs…and we forecast of 247,000 for 2017,” said the report.

This means that Canada’s TV subscriber base is dropping by 2% per year.

In contrast, the number of Canadians subscribed to streaming services is on the rise.

The report found that the Canadian revenue of streaming services grew 35% to $651 million in 2016. That revenue is expected to reach $827 million in 2017.

At a CRTC hearing in November 2016, Bell Media president Mary Ann Turcke shared her concern about streaming service Amazon Prime entering the Canadian market.

“So it’s not just our fellow Canadian broadcasters who will try to outbid us for first run original programming, but it’s Netflix and now Amazon, two entities that are not subject to the same regulatory requirements as us and that have astronomically more buying power than we do,” said Turcke.

Video streaming services show no sign of slowing down. On April 17, Netflix announced it surpassed $2.5 billion in quarterly streaming revenue and added 5 million members across the globe.

The Convergence Research Group report estimates that streaming services will represent 69% of Canadian movie and TV rental revenue in 2017.

Simran SinghSimran Singh

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