Forty-six percent of Canadians subscribe to some sort of online video, TV, or streaming service, as online platforms have begun to slowly push traditional cable video providers out of the market. Netflix is the most popular among these subscription streaming video services, with a total of around 6.78 million Canadians subscribing to the service as of 2018. English-speaking Canadians use more Netflix than their French-speaking counterparts, but penetration rate continues to steadily rise among both groups. In addition to Netflix, free streaming services such as YouTube are becoming more and more popular, especially among younger generations. In fact, as of 2017, YouTube had a reach of 90 percent among Canadians from age 18 to 24.
Streaming audio has experience similar success in the Canadian market, evidenced by the fact that total on-demand digital audio streams reached over 11 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017 alone. The song ‘God’s Plan’ by Canadian artist Drake was streamed over 72 million times in June of 2018 alone, and around 24 percent of Canadian adults listen to podcasts on at least a monthly basis. In total, Canadians spend around 9 percent of their listening time with streaming audio amounting to around 90 minutes per week.
Streaming media looks to be set to continue its growth in Canada in the coming years, with around 56 percent of people stating that they have increased their consumption of subscription streaming video services in the past year, and 37 percent stating that they had increased their subscription steaming music service consumption.
