Our forecast for digital video viewers in Canada highlights greater consumption of the medium during the pandemic.

After a challenging 2020, which saw big shifts in how digital media was consumed and how marketing adapted, we anticipate five developments will have a lasting impact on Canada’s digital economy.

Our new forecast for global mobile messaging app users shows that the pandemic has accelerated adoption of OTT messaging services, though not in every country nor to the same degree for every app.

What has been dubbed the “streaming wars” in many markets—especially in the US—is more like a skirmish in Canada. Despite the influx of US-based services like Disney+ and Apple TV+ in the past year, and the presence of homegrown services like Bell Media’s Crave nationally and Vidéotron’s Club Illico in Quebec, Netflix is still by far the most popular subscription OTT service in Canada.

Digital video viewership in Canada is among the highest in the world, driven by high usage of YouTube and Netflix.

A little over a year since its debut in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, Disney+ is now officially available to consumers in Latin America. Subscribers to the platform will be able to enjoy unlimited access to the company’s vast array of content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, Fox, and more.

After reaching an expected saturation point last year, daily media time in Canada will climb further this year based on our latest forecasts. COVID-19 has driven up demand for media while people are quarantined at home, which will impact our full-year forecast.

The sports video streaming landscape in Canada is a mix of legacy TV network groups Bell Media and Rogers Media; digital media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Amazon; and independent startups like DAZN.

This report collection explores programmatic digital display ad spending through 2021 across Canada, China, France, Germany, the UK and the US. Reports include breakdowns by device, transaction type and more, and explore the factors driving investment.

Programmatic transactions for digital display account for 86.4% of the market in Canada this year, even though global privacy reform and device tracking protections are making it more challenging to execute.