While this may come as a surprise to some, the pace of Canadians switching from conventional television services like digital cable and satellite, to internet-based TV, is slowing down following three years of growth, account to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
New figures indicate that 300,000 more Canadians subscribed to internet protocol television, often referred to as IPTV, last year than in 2015, amounting to a 13.8 percent increase year over year.
The CRTC does, however, state that this growth was at a much slower rate when compared to 2015, where subscriptions to IPTV services like Netflix and CraveTV skyrocketed by 21 percent.
Direct-to-home TV service providers reported a 2.1 percent drop in revenue in 2016, a dip that’s more significant than the overall 0.1 percent revenue decline in the previous year. In total, provider revenue fell to $8.7 billion CAD last year compared to $8.9 billion in 2015, according to the CRTC’s data.
Television stations specifically reported a 4.5 percent decline in revenue, amounting to $1.68 billion in 2016 compared to $1.76 billion in the previous year. Spending on Canadian specific programming also declined for the first time since 2013, dropping by 3.4 percent.
Bell recently increased the monthly subscription cost of CraveTV by $2 for current customers, bringing the total cost up to $8 per month. CraveTV is still priced at $7.99 for cord cutters that don’t already subscribe to Bell services. Bell’s service remains the only Canadian run streaming platform following the closure of Rogers and Shaw’s Shomi platform.
Amazon also recently launched its Prime Video streaming service in Canada.
Source: The Canadian Press (CBC)
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