‘Record’ loss of TV subscribers this year: Boon Dog

The number of Canadian households abandoning TV-service subscriptions from Canada’s biggest providers during the first nine months of this year was almost seven times higher than during the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by consulting company Boon Dog Professional Services Inc. Boon Dog said in a release Monday that Canada's publicly traded telecom providers lost a net 153,000 TV subscribers during that first three-quarters of the year, compared to a loss of 22,000 a year before. The measurement period covered the nine months ended in Sept. 30 for BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp., Quebecor Inc. and Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., and — because of the timing of their fiscal reporting periods — the nine months up until Aug. 31 for Shaw Communications Inc. and Cogeco Cable Inc. For the last three months of that period, the number of cord-cutters amounted to 39,000, an eightfold increase from 4,800 a year before, Boon Dog said. Boon Dog partner Mario Mota said in a phone interview that the figures are indicative of "a continuation of the trend, really, of more and more people exercising their options in the additional choice that they have to get TV service," namely online sources. Mota said the rate at which people are abandoning subscription TV services could rise substantially again next year, unless the coming CRTC regulations requiring providers to offer skinny-basic packages for no more than $25 a month by March next year, and mandatory pick-and-pay choices by the following December, convince people to stay in the TV system. "There may be a lot of customers out there that are frustrated by the lack of choice that they have with the current packaging, so they're leaving the service altogether to go to OTT or other options," he said. "Whereas, if they have the option of just picking five or 10 channels that they really want, maybe that might keep them in the traditional TV ecosystem going forward." Boon Dog cautioned in its release that the "record" loss of TV subscribers this year represents just one per cent of the national TV-subscriber base of about 11.5 million households. It added that the trend of cable customers moving to IPTV services continued this year, as shown by the recent news that, at the end of the third quarter, Bell was the biggest provider of TV services in the Canada with 2.7 million subscribers, pulling ahead of Shaw. "Why is this significant?" Mota asked in the release. "Shaw has been providing TV services for almost 50 years, while Bell began offering TV services 18 years ago. In addition, Boon Dog estimates that the number of IPTV subscribers will surpass DTH satellite-TV subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2015.” Bell indicated in its third-quarter financial disclosure that 1.1 million of its 2.7 million TV subscribers are on IPTV — up 251,226 over the year — with a shrinking majority still on satellite. — With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca CORRECTION: Boon Dog corrected the estimate for total TV subscriptions to 11.5 million. It previously said 11.4 million.

‘Record’ loss of TV subscribers this year: Boon Dog

Broadcast | November 6, 2015

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