Canada’s Pay-TV Market Reaching Saturation

EL SEGUNDO: Canada’s pay-TV market is expected to peak this year, with penetration at an all-time high of 92 percent, according to an IHS Screen Digest Television Intelligence Market Monitor Report.

After this year, subscription penetration is expected to start to decline, just slightly, due to economic issues and rising competition from OTT services. The saturation in the market comes three years after the same event occurred in the U.S. The reason for the delayed peak was due to economic effects and severe data caps implemented by cable operators in the country.

As this era of significant growth comes to an end, Canadian cable operators are looking for ancillary businesses to make up for the declining subscriptions. New growth opportunities may lie in services such as Wi-Fi and cellular.

“The inevitable maturation of Canada’s pay-TV industry has finally arrived,” said Erik Brannon, analyst for television research at IHS. “The country’s pay-TV operators are feeling the impact of economic woes spurred by the recession that recently ended in the United States. Furthermore, OTT players like Netflix are playing a role in the cessation of pay-TV subscriber growth.”