Canadians are moving to cheaper tech services: report

Nearly 1 in 3 Canadian households have reduced expenses by modifying or canceling some of their subscriptions.

MTM’s latest report, Changing Lanes – Altering Service Subscriptions, sheds light on changes Canadians are making to various tech services subscriptions and why. With such a variety of SVOD and TV packages available, it’s fairly easy to cancel or downgrade a subscription as a way to cut costs. Nearly three in 10 respondents (29%) say they reduced or cancelled either a streaming video on demand (SVOD) service or a paid TV service in the past six months. Cellphone and home internet services are viewed as more or less essential services so very few respondents say they have cancelled services.

The trend of altering subscriptions spans generations, with more changes being made by younger Canadians than older ones. In these economic times, younger Canadians are cost-conscious and are more likely to seek out the best deal than older Canadians. Looking at SVOD, 34% of those 18 to 34 and 35% of those 35 to 49 have altered or cancelled their service in the last six months compared to 17% of Canadians 65-plus.

Income isn’t a big factor in altering or cancelling services as more affluent households are just as likely to change services as less affluent ones. In fact, the most affluent are more likely to make changes with 32% of $150K to $200K households having altered or cancelled their SVOD subscriptions and 34% of those households having altered or cancelled paid TV services.

Anglophones are more likely to have made changes to their services in the past six months compared to Francophones. This is particularly notable when it comes to video services, such as TV (31% of Anglophones vs. 23% Francophones) and SVOD (31% vs. 21%). Francophones are generally more connected to TV, so there may be more appeal in sticking with the services that people have. There are also more English-language SVODs than French-language ones, giving Anglophone subscribers more options to begin with – which also gives them more options to change or cancel.

Some SVOD subscribers can get a cheaper service if they allow for ads. Although part of the early appeal of SVODs was the lack of commercials, services are looking for other ways to monetize their services. One-third (34%) of those who have seen ads on one of Netflix, Disney+, or Crave say that they have made some sort of change to their SVOD subscriptions in the past six months – including possibly switching to the cheaper service with commercials.

Off-air respondents (45%) are the most likely to say they have changed or cancelled a TV service over the past six months. With the availability of content on cheaper SVOD services and FAST channels, people can exchange an expensive TV service while still picking up local channels via an antenna to get local news or other basic TV content. Nearly a third of respondents from streaming-only households have made some sort of change to their services. There is also a higher penetration of changes or cancellations among those with fibre optic services (29%). As the newest method of distributing linear TV service, many people who make changes to their package are also shifting towards this type of service.

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