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Canadians spent $872 million on OTT subscriptions in 2017, according to report

Netflix, Amazon and other OTT service providers might outbid traditional Canadian television outlets

Netflix logo on phone

According to a report from the Convergence Research Group, Canadian spent roughly $872 million CAD on over-the-top (OTT) subscriptions like Netflix in 2017.

That figure represents an approximate increase of 29 percent, when compared to 2016.

The same report expects that OTT access revenue will grow to $1.11 billion in 2018, and may reach $1.58 billion by 2020.

“We forecast in 2020 there will be more OTT subscriber households than TV subscribers in Canada,” reads an excerpt from the Convergence Research Group’s The Battle for the Canadian Couch Potato: OTT, TV, Online report.

The Convergence Research Group recieved its data from “24 OTT providers led by Netflix.”

The report did not assign revenue to Amazon Prime, because it “did not increase price with the recent addition of video in Canada.”

In addition to OTT spending, Canadians in 2017 spent $8.74 billion on traditional cable or satellite television services, representing a 2 percent decline in spending when compared to 2016.

The report suggests that traditional television service spending will decline by 1 percent, representing roughly $8.64 billion in 2018.

According to the report, approximately 4.14 million Canadians do not have a traditional television subscription, compared to 3.78 million in 2016.

“Going forward if Amazon, DAZN, and Netflix (not to mention the possibility of Apple, Facebook or Google entering the Canadian market) are willing to spend heftily on programming, there may be room for them to outbid Bell Media, Corus or Rogers in obtaining programming despite not having a traditional TV platform,” reads an excerpt from the same report.

Forecasts suggest that 4.55 million Canadians won’t have traditional television subscriptions in 2018. Additionally, broadband subscription revenue grew by 8 percent in 2017, representing $8.06 billion in spending.

Broadband revenue is expected to generate $8.7 billion in 2018.

Source: Convergence Report 

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