Major Canadian TV providers last year lost a record 65,000 TV subscribers, up sharply from a few hundred lost in their 2013 fiscal years, according consultant Boon Dog Professional Service’s latest Canadian Digital TV Market Monitor research.
The report, covering fiscal 2014 years for publicly traded cable and satellite TV providers, found cord-cutting “accelerated” in 2014.
That’s despite the 65,000 lost TV subscribers representing only 1% of an overall Canadian traditional TV market of 11.7 million households.
According to the report, Rogers Communications, the country’s largest cable operator, lost 135,000 TV subscribers in the year to Dec. 31, 2014, while BCE in the same time frame lost 150,360 customers.
Shaw Communications lost 68,590 subscribers and Shaw Direct lost 32,000 customers during the fiscal year to Nov. 30, 2014.
By contrast, Telus Corp. added 98,000 subscribers for its Optik TV offering.
At the same time, the report said IPTV subscriber growth slowed in 2014, especially for Telus, putting up overall TV subscriber losses.
“Another firm trend is that satellite TV is now in significant decline in Canada,” the Boon Dog research concluded.
