OTTAWA – New research released today reveals that, while overall numbers are still small, the phenomenon known as “cord-cutting” is showing signs of accelerating in the Canadian TV market.
What’s become known as “cord-cutting” in the TV industry and beyond is when subscription television subscribers decide to eliminate their TV service altogether (in favour of internet viewing or free over-the-air or a combination of the two).
Canada’s publicly traded television service providers1 (cable, satellite, and telephone companies) lost an estimated 19,624 TV subscribers (see chart below) combined in the second quarter of 2013 (February/March to May/June 2013), according to new research from Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services. (Ed note: Numbers also reveal while the number of traditional TV subscribers is falling, the broadband customer bases of these companies continue to grow, suggesting these folks aren’t cutting all telecom/cable services from their households.)
While that time frame is normally a slow quarter for TV service subscriber growth, the Boon Dog report says the latest subscriber results signal an acceleration of “cord-cutting” in the Canadian traditional TV service market. The Q2 2013 loss in subscribers followed a loss of an estimated 5,394 TV subscribers in Q1 2013 (November/December 2012 to February/March 2013) and a decrease of an estimated 8,175 in Q4 2012 (August/September to November/December 2012).
More than 90% of all traditional TV service subscribers in Canada are customers of the publicly traded TV service providers, notes the research. Given these large, well financed TV service providers lost customers as a whole in each of the last three quarters, Boon Dog estimates that the entire traditional TV service market also shrank by similar levels in the same periods.
The analysis is contained in Boon Dog’s the Canadian Digital TV Market Monitor research series, which estimates the size of the Canadian traditional TV service market at roughly 11.8 million households at the end of Q2 2013.
“Interestingly, the ‘cord-cutting’ situation in Canada mirrors what is happening south of the border,” said Mario Mota, Boon Dog Partner and principal author of the Canadian Digital TV Market Monitor research series. “U.S. analyst Craig Moffett of Moffett Research noted in a research note last week that the U.S. TV service market has now declined for three consecutive quarters. While the decline in subscribers in Canada is small relative to the size of the total TV market, it is statistically significant because we too now have three straight quarters of data for the Canadian market that confirms that cord-cutting is a reality.”
Boon Dog Professional Services Inc. is an Ottawa-based research and consulting firm offering a range of professional services and research studies to clients in a number of sectors, with an expertise in the broadcasting and media sectors. The Canadian Digital TV Market Monitor tracks the growth and development of the digital TV services market, providing information such as subscriber data and forecasts, digital TV market share by technology (i.e., cable, satellite, and IPTV), estimates of households with HDTV set-top boxes, PVRs/DVRs, and those that are VOD-ready. The research series is now in its 12th year of publication.
