In 2022, 48.9% of households in Canada will have pay TV, marking a massive and continuing trend of cable cord-cutting in the country.

All the major cable providers in Canada—Rogers, Bell, Videotron, Cogeco, and Shaw—have an IPTV platform for alternative delivery of subscription services. Rogers reported having 544,000 IPTV subscribers at the end of 2020, delivered through its Ignite set-top box. That’s equal to over one-fifth of Rogers’ nearly 2.6 million traditional cable subscribers.

While pandemic-driven lockdowns may have benefited certain forms of media, the traditional pay TV industry is not one of them. In fact, cable, satellite, and telecom TV providers will lose the most subscribers ever.

Netflix accounts for the bulk of OTT viewing, but other services like Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and homegrown platform Crave have gained significant subscriber bases. How prevalent is cord-cutting in Canada? Up until this year, the number of cable subscribers opting out of their service was fairly small compared with the total number of cable households in Canada.

The annual declines in cable subscribers has been in the low-single-digit percentage range for many years, but the number jumped in 2020. Convergence Research Group expected accelerated cord-cutting in Canada in 2020, likely driven by the new financial reality of lower disposable incomes during the pandemic.

The annual decline in cable TV subscribers has been in the low single-digit percentage range for many years, but the number jumped in 2020. Convergence Research Group estimated that there were 388,000 fewer pay TV subscriptions in Canada in 2020, a steeper drop than 2019’s decrease of 283,000. Media Technology Monitor tracking showed that 68% of adults surveyed in fall 2020 were pay TV subscribers.

Leichtman Research Group estimates that in Q2 2020, the top US cable and telecom companies added 1.2 million internet subscribers and the most cable internet subscribers in a single quarter since Q1 2007. Computing Products and Consumer Electronics.

Ad dollars and viewers are pouring into digital video platforms as the TV industry continues to lose subscribers.

As consumers pivot away from cable and satellite TV, pay TV penetration is declining in Latin America—though at slower rate than in the US.