Almost half of Canadians have cut cable entirely

An estimated 46 per cent (7.35 million) of Canadian households didn't have a TV subscription with a cable, satellite, or telecom-based provider in 2024, according to a new report from Convergence Research.

In its latest annual "Couch Potato" report on the streaming market, the firm notes that this was a four per cent increase from 2023 and that the number is expected to continue to rise to 54 per cent by 2027. Convergence notes that this marks a greater shift towards subscription video on demand services (SVOD) like Netflix and Disney+. 

To that point, the firm found that Canadian streaming subscription revenue grew 15 per cent year-over-year to $4.2 billion in 2024. At the same time, linear TV subscription revenue dropped five per cent to around $6.5 billion.

Some other interesting findings from the report:

• The 10 leading streaming providers raised prices in Canada by an average of six percent last year
• Ad-enabled memberships are cost 39 percent less on average compared to ad-free options
• Canadians subscribe to an average of 2.6 streaming platforms per household

That said, Convergence Research noted in an interview with The Canadian Press that the majority of this ever-growing streaming revenue is going to American companies. Indeed, Bell-owned Crave is the only Canadian service among the major streaming players, with the likes of Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and Apple TV+ all being American.

This has led the CRTC to introduce the "Online Streaming Act" requiring foreign streamers to invest five percent of their Canadian revenue into Canadian content. Several American streamers have been trying to fight the act in court and in the public eye, and Netflix even cut local arts funding in response. The CRTC is set to implement the act by the end of the year.