rfmcdonald | [LINK] "TV subscriber losses increased last year and will keep growing, report says" (Reply)

CBC's Pete Evans reports on the accelerating collapse of traditional television and telephone service, as streaming media and cell phones take over.

The Convergence Consulting Group says about 95,000 fewer households had a cable TV or satellite subscription in 2014. That's a huge increase in TV subscriber losses from 13,000 the previous year. But it's less than the 97,000 the consultancy forecasts will cut the cord in 2015.

Between 2007 and 2011, cable subscriptions grew by about 220,000 per year.

But today, more and more Canadian households don't have a conventional TV subscription. The report says the number of Canadian households that did not have a traditional linear TV subscription grew by 163,000 in 2013, another 240,000 last year and are that figure is poised to increase by 242,000 this year.

Brahm Eiley, president of Toronto-based firm that completed the study, said many of those customers are turning to Netflix. He estimates the streaming service ended last year with 3.9 million Canadian subscribers, up from three million the year before.

[. . .]

Television isn't the only cord that Canadians are cutting. The report also shows Canadians are ditching their home phone lines at an escalating pace. By the end of 2015, the authors expect 31 per cent of Canadians will have no land-line telephone, and will instead only have one or multiple cellphones for their telecommunications needs.