IPTV in Canada is rapidly gaining momentum at the expense of incumbent cable and satellite services, with IPTV’s share of pay-TV subscriptions in the country rising to nearly to 10 per cent in the third quarter of 2012.

IPTV accounted for 9.6 per cent of Canadian pay-TV video subscriptions in the third quarter, according to IHS Screen Digest Television Intelligence. This is up from 6.6 per cent during the third quarter of 2011, and from 1.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2007. Such an expansion will set the pace for IPTV’s portion of Canada’s subscriber base to rise to 18.1 per cent by the end of 2017, in the process causing the combined share of competitive technologies—cable and satellite—to fall to 81.9 per cent.

“Canadian telcos are adding IPTV subscribers at a rapid clip as Telus and Bell Canada engage in large-scale build-outs of their infrastructure in order to reach more potential customers,” said Erik Brannon, analyst for television research at IHS. “IPTV will continue to make strong gains in Canada in the coming years, eroding the dominant position now held by the cable and satellite services.”

IPTV’s growth in Canada has come at the expense of cable and, to a lesser extent, satellite. Both cable and satellite continued to lose subscribers in the third quarter of 2012, each experiencing a 2 per cent year-over-year decline in subscriber growth compared to the third quarter of 2011.

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