Canada’s Online Streaming Industry

12th October 2024

Canada’s Online Streaming Industry

Canada covers a large area geographically – it is the second largest country after Russia but is only home to around 0.5% of the world’s total population. Tourism might be one of the largest industries, but for those that live in Canada, entertainment seems to be focused on what can be beamed into homes – and that is why streaming is so important to the country.

There are three main facets of streaming that Canadian’s enjoy. Firstly, Video on Demand (VOD). This includes TV shows and movies and is the most used form of streaming in the country – which has proved problematic for cable companies, but more on that later. Secondly, it is music streaming. And lastly, Canadians are increasingly being entertained by video game streaming – with many Canadians accessing a wide range of gaming sites and apps like casino sites found on casinos.com to access their favourite games.

Let’s start with subscription video.

Video Streaming

Canada is third globally in terms of subscription video penetration, behind the US and, surprisingly, Norway.

In 2023, consumers in Canada subscribed to an average of 3.5 different video on demand services, with the most popular being Netflix. In fact, 70% of Canadians are subscribed to Netflix. YouTube and Tubi are growing in popularity in the younger generations.

There are several different video streaming services available to Canadian citizens, including:

Amazon Prime Video
Apple TV+
BritBox
CBC Gen Premium
Crave
Crunchyroll
Curiosity Stream
Discovery+
Disney+
HIghball.TV
Netflix
Paramount+
Shudder
YouTube Premium

These subscription services all come at a cost, but it is one that Canadians are happy to shoulder – in fact, 42% of Canadians did not have a TV subscription with a traditional provider by the end of 2023. While streaming subscriptions rose, so did prices – an average of 12% in 2023 across the biggest providers such as Netflix and Disney+. In this time, subscription revenue from Canadian customers grew by 14%, but traditional TV providers saw their revenue decline by 3% over the year.

This drop in revenue might explain why traditional cable providers have gone to the regulators to ask for help – they claim it is to ensure that these streaming services are doing more to contribute to and promote Canadian content, but the cynics might argue they are just looking to boost their own bottom line.

Music Streaming

Music streaming services had 8.6m users in 2023, and a recent survey said that one in three Canadians listen to a podcast at least once a month. It is important to remember that the statistics for music streaming should really be known as audio streaming, to include podcasts and audiobooks too.

The audiobooks market revenue is predicted to reach $226.70 million (US) by 2024 and continue to grow at an annual rate of 10.54% to reach $374.10 million (US) according to Statista. This is part of the rapid growth in demand for digital media, and a real surge in different types of books that are available. The audiobooks market is predicted to reach 15.2 million users by 2029.

Music streaming, according to Statista, continues to grow, and the market revenue is expected to reach $524.80 million (US) by 2027, with 9.9 million users by that time too. The user penetration is set to be 24.7% by 2027, too. Top music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music dominate the streaming market as is to be expected, but there are other places that people in Canada are finding their music content – especially sites like YouTube, which are often free to use.

Game Streaming

The video game industry in Canada is booming – as it is in many places. This might have increased exponentially during the pandemic, and it does appear to be bottoming out now, but growth is still happening. 23 million Canadians play video games, which is about 61% of the population.

According to Statista, in 2022 video games accounted for most of the digital media revenue in Canada. Digital gaming sales have long overtaken physical sales in terms of revenue in Canada like in other countries. The market volume of video games is projected to reach $5,144.00 million (US) by 2027.

Both men and women seem to enjoy video games, but smartphone users dominate the space. Twitch and similar were only used by 14% of Canadian gamers, but those streamers that do use the services are among the most-followed accounts worldwide.

The most popular Twitch streamer in Canada is Felix Lengyel better known as xQc. He used to be a professional Overwatch player and in 2022 achieved 134,000 peaks concurrent views in one month. The number one female Twitch streamer in the world, Pokemane, is also from Canada. So, while Canadians might not have many streamers, the ones they have are popular.

As we move towards 2027 it will be interesting to see just how these figures and statistics will hold up, and whether the online streaming industry in Canada will continue to grow.

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