[Guest]

Interest among Canadians in specialty TV channels delivered via digital platforms helped drive the number of subscriptions to digital TV up 13 percent in the final few months of 2001, according to a new report by Ottawa-based Decima Publishing.

The percentage increase in subscribers between August/September and November/December 2001 was slightly higher than the previous months, the Canadian company said. According to Decima's research, Canada's two satellite TV providers continue to dominate the digital TV market, with Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice taking 62 percent market share at the end of 2001 versus cable's 35 percent.

These percentages are expected to be 61 percent (satellite) and 37 percent (cable) at the end of 2002. The number of digital TV subscribers topped 2.8 million at the end of 2001 and currently stands at about 2.9 million, Decima said.

Also, Decima Publishing said the Canadian cable industry is adding digital subscribers at a faster rate than the cable industry south of the border. "Our research shows that the Canadian digital cable subscriber base increased by 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2001 compared to 11 percent digital cable growth in the U.S.," Decima's Mario Mota said.

From SkyReport (Used with permission)

 

[Guest]

I think the digital penetration is increasing at a faster rate in Canada is because their is a wider variety of choice in digital offerings when it comes to specialty networks. In the U.S. most of the digital tiers on cable appear to be mostly premium movie packages and few digital specialty channels. I think this is whats making the diffference. In Canada we lack in the number of premium movie services. On Rogers for instance their are over 70 digital specialty networks including timeshifting and superstations.
Show me a U.S. cable company offering that many digital channels not including Movie Networks.