Canadian TV Cord-Cutting Accelerated in 2019

The pace of Canadian cable and satellite TV losses mirrors the U.S. market, where cord-cutting continues in the face of increased streaming competition.

The number of Canadians who last year cut the cord on their traditional cable, telco and satellite TV services set a new record, according to a report from Boon Dog Professional Services released Thursday.

Canadian TV providers lost 278,000 subscribers in 2019, against a year-earlier 170,000 loss, the report found.

That accelerating pace of cord-cutting is comparable to the U.S. market, where telecom giant AT&T, in its recent fourth-quarter financials, revealed it lost 945,00 premium TV subscribers at DirecTV and U-Verse, and Charter Communications disclosed it lost 101,000 pay TV subscribers over the same period.

"The continued launch of new internet streaming services and the growth of such services in Canada, a slowdown in the growth of IPTV, and continued record losses of subscribers to cable TV all contributed to a record cumulative loss by the big Canadian TV service providers," Boon Dog said in a statement accompanying its report.

The Canadian market, like the U.S. to the south, is also reaching a tipping point for cord-cutting as traditional TV providers look to boost profits by offering fewer promotions just as Disney, WarnerMedia and Apple launch their own streaming services in North America to battle Netflix and Amazon Prime.