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.

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

In 2013, Videotron launched Club illico, an ad-free SVOD service with an audience that exceeded 430,000 by August 2019. In Q3 2019, the GlobalWebIndex survey had Club illico uptake at 14.7% of those polled. Videotron funds content production in the French-language media ecosystem for Club illico, which includes feature films and original programming.

French-language programs from Ici RDI (Radio-Canada) was available to all subscribers on Bell TV, Vidéotron and Cogeco. CBC news content is also available online via a streaming service, CBC Gem, the CBC website and mobile app, as well as ici.radio-canada.ca. Streaming Video Gains Even More Steam in Quarantine. Consumers have turned to a blend of TV and digital video for long-form content.

Subscription streaming services like Netflix and homegrown services from local media companies Bell Media, Rogers Communications and Quebecor’s Videotron are now central for viewers in Canada for movies, TV shows and sports. More than two-thirds (67.2%) of Canada’s population watches digital video, across a range of devices.

French-language programs from Ici RDI (Radio-Canada) were available to all subscribers on Bell TV, Vidéotron and Cogeco. CBC news content is also available online via its streaming service CBC Gem, the CBC website and mobile app, as well as ici.radio-canada.ca. Canada’s daily news providers have also announced measures to make content about the outbreak more accessible.

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.