8% of Canadians are Now ‘Cord Cutters’ Who No Longer Watch Traditional Television

Traditional television remains well and alive, but it’s no longer for everyone.

More and more Canadians are “cutting the cord,” foregoing cable for internet-based alternatives. According to a new report from the Media Technology Monitor, the amount of of cord cutters in Canada has doubled since 2007.

In 2007, 4% of Canadians had cancelled cable in favour of alternatives such as Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. Today, 8% of Canadians go without traditional television.

Cord cutters tend to be younger and highly educated Canadians and, not surprisingly, are heavy internet users. The report suggests half of cord cutters in Canada are younger than 35 and have a university education. Canadians who don’t subscribe to cable spend 20 hours per week surfing the web, compared to just 15 hours surfed by traditional television watchers.

A separate report released by the Convergence Consulting Group reinforces MTM’s data, suggesting that more than 2% of Canadian TV customers cancelled subscriptions between 2011 and 2012. This number could reach over 3% by the end of this year.

I personally have gone without cable for several months now and have missed it approximately zero times.