In the last quarter of 2006, the number of digital television subscribers in Canada increased by an estimated 4% (or 223,000), according to the latest report in Decima’s ‘Digital Domain’ series. At that time, 55% of Canadian subscribers were receiving digital TV service via a digital set-top-box (5.87 million, of which 1,449,150 lived in Quebec).

Between December 2005 and December 2006, year-over-year digital subscription increased 14%, compared with 19% in the previous comparable period. Cable had an estimated 51.5% share of the digital TV market (3,020,625), compared to a 50% share for DTH (2,842,965). Decima estimates that 13% of digital TV subscribers had an HDTV box as of December 2006, while 9% had a PVR and 48% had access to VOD.

Rogers remains the digital TV market leader with 21% (2,277,100), followed closely by Shaw’s 21% (2,213,457), Bell ExpressVu/DSL’s 17% (1,820,000), Videotron’s 15% (1,572,000), StarChoice’s 8% (871,634), Cogeco’s 8% (849, 417), Eastlink’s 2% (230,000) and others’ 8% (811,740).