Nearly half of all Canadian TV subscriptions are for streaming services: Scotiabank

Canadian streaming service subscriptions are steadily closing in on cable and satellite television subscriptions.

According to an October 15th, 2018 report published by Scotiabank’s Jeff Fan, over the top (OTT) streaming services — specifically Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, CraveTV and Club illico — account for approximately 46 percent of all Canadian television subscriptions.

Fan added that he expects OTT subscriptions to overtake traditional television subscriptions by 2019-2022.

A consultant who spoke with Fan reportedly revealed that television advertising tends to drop in markets with more OTT service offerings.

“Specifically, the analysis of Canada and Western European markets showed that 45% of the decline in TV advertising can be explained by the higher OTT mix,” wrote Fan, in his October 15th report.

“This should not come as a surprise because lower viewership on traditional linear TV makes the platform less attractive to advertisers.”

Fan believes that, if Canadian broadcasters can’t beat global OTT services, “then we believe they should produce content (especially local content) to sell to the latter.”

It’s worth noting that Canadian-produced content accounts for approximately three percent of all content on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Source: Scotiabank