OTTAWA – IPTV providers are quickly gaining market share as the number of Canadians subscribing to a digital television service topped 10 million at the end of 2011, according to new research from Ottawa-based Boon Dog Professional Services.
The report, from Boon Dog’s Canadian Digital TV Market Monitor research series, found that the number of digital TV subscription households (digital cable, satellite TV, or IPTV) increased by 10%, or more than 890,000 in 2011, to surpass 10 million for the first time, compared to 10% growth or more than 850,000 a year earlier.
The overall traditional TV subscription market in Canada (analog and digital combined) also continues to grow despite an increasing number of Internet-based alternatives available to consumers, such as Netflix, the report continues, crediting the shutdown of analog over-the-air TV transmission, population growth, and the emergence of strong IPTV competitors for the increase. Approximately 11.8 million households subscribed to a traditional TV service (cable, satellite, or IPTV) at the end of 2011, up from about 11.5 million in 2010.
“Our research shows that 85% of Canadian TV subscription households had a digital service as opposed to analog service at the end of 2011, up from 79% a year earlier,” said Mario Mota, Boon Dog co-founder and principal author of the research series. “The percentage of TV subscription households receiving traditional analog cable reached an all-time low of 15% as many cable companies push to migrate their remaining analog customers to their digital offerings.”
Other key findings from the research include:
– At December 31, 2011, cable had a 63% share of digital TV households, followed by satellite at 29%, and IPTV at 9%. This compares to 62% (cable), 31% (satellite), and 6% (IPTV) a year earlier;
– IPTV’s share of the digital TV market is forecast to nearly double to about 17% by the end of 2014 at the expense of both satellite and cable;
– An estimated 52% of all digital TV households (or more than 5.1 million) were HDTV-ready at the end of 2011, meaning they have an HDTV set-top box that allows them to watch true HDTV programming; and
– At December 31, 2011, an estimated 69% of all digital TV households (or more than 6.8 million) had access to video-on-demand (VOD) through their cable or IPTV service provider.
