Streaming has become the dominant way Canadians watch television and film, fundamentally reshaping how content is discovered, consumed, and financed. What was once a supplementary option to traditional broadcasting is now the default viewing experience for much of the population.
This shift is not only technological but also cultural. As global streaming platforms expand their reach, Canadians are navigating an environment where entertainment is more abundant, more personalised, and more internationally driven than ever before.
At the same time, streaming is no longer just a question of convenience. It has become closely tied to broader debates about cultural identity, affordability, and the visibility of Canadian stories in a global digital marketplace.
Widespread Adoption: Streaming as the New Normal
Streaming is now a defining feature of media consumption in Canada, cutting across age groups and regions and increasingly replacing traditional broadcast viewing as the primary way people access television and film content.
One of the clearest indicators of this shift is how widespread streaming behaviour has become. Research shows that roughly nine in ten Canadians stream video content weekly, underscoring just how universal on-demand viewing has become.
Subscription-based streaming is also deeply embedded in household media habits. According to Media Technology Monitor (MTM) and CRTC-aligned reporting, around three-quarters of Canadian households subscribe to at least one subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service. This reflects a mature streaming market where platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and Crave are commonly used alongside one another rather than as standalone services.
At the same time, streaming is not replacing television in a simple one-to-one shift, but rather reshaping how total screen time is distributed. Canadians continue to engage with a mix of streaming and traditional TV, with overall viewing habits increasingly fragmented across platforms, devices, and subscription models.
Another defining feature of the Canadian streaming landscape is household “stacking,” maintaining multiple subscriptions simultaneously. This reflects both the breadth of available content and the reality that no single platform fully satisfies viewing needs. As a result, many households combine services to access different content libraries, including international titles, sports, and Canadian programming.
Alongside this expansion, there is also growing awareness of subscription management. While Canadians value convenience and choice, the increasing number of services has led to more active subscription decisions, including starting, pausing, or switching services depending on content availability.
Taken together, these trends show that streaming in Canada is no longer emerging; it is established. The key shift now is not adoption, but how Canadians manage and navigate an increasingly complex digital viewing ecosystem.
Platform Preferences and Canadian Content Discovery
Despite the fragmentation of the streaming landscape, platform usage in Canada remains clearly led by a small group of dominant services, most of them global. Netflix continues to be the most widely used streaming platform in the country, particularly among younger audiences, followed closely by Prime Video and Disney+. YouTube also plays a major role in everyday video consumption, functioning as both an entertainment platform and a discovery engine across age groups.
Alongside these international services, domestic platforms such as Crave occupy a more targeted role in the ecosystem, particularly for Canadian programming and premium television content. However, overall viewing remains heavily concentrated on global platforms, which shape much of what Canadians watch and discover.
This creates an important tension in the Canadian streaming environment: while audiences have unprecedented access to global content, Canadian stories must compete within recommendation systems and catalogues that are not primarily designed around national cultural visibility. As a result, discoverability of Canadian content remains a persistent challenge, particularly on large international platforms where algorithmic recommendations often prioritise scale, popularity, and global trends.
At the same time, public support for Canadian content policies remains strong. According to an April 2026 Pollara Strategic Insights survey commissioned by the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA):
- 83% of Canadians support the Online Streaming Act
- Support is consistently strong across regions, including 88% in Quebec
- 72% of Canadians support an independent domestic regulator with the authority to fine and penalize digital platforms that fail to comply with safety standards.
These findings suggest that while Canadians are deeply integrated into global streaming ecosystems, they still strongly support mechanisms that ensure Canadian voices and stories remain visible within them. In other words, platform choice may be global, but cultural expectations remain distinctly national.
The Policy Debate: Culture, Costs, and Affordability
Canada’s Online Streaming Act represents a significant shift in how digital streaming platforms are regulated, aiming to ensure that large international services contribute to the creation and visibility of Canadian content. At its core, the policy reflects a long-standing objective in Canadian cultural policy: maintaining space for domestic storytelling within increasingly global media markets.
Regulatory developments
In 2026, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) advanced implementation of the new framework through a series of broadcasting policy decisions. These included:
- Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2026-95, which focuses on discoverability requirements for Canadian content on streaming platforms
- Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2026-96, which introduces proposed obligations for certain foreign streaming services to contribute to Canadian programming expenditures
Together, these measures aim to increase both investment in Canadian production and the visibility of Canadian content within platform recommendation systems and catalogues.
A central element of the proposed framework is the requirement for eligible streaming services operating in Canada to contribute a portion of revenues toward Canadian programming. This approach mirrors long-standing obligations placed on traditional broadcasters, adapted for digital-first platforms.
Federal government response (June 2026)
In June 2026, the federal government issued a directive requesting that the CRTC review parts of its newly announced framework. The government’s stated concern was that certain cost burdens associated with the policy could ultimately be passed on to consumers through higher subscription prices.
Alongside this review, the government announced a $600 million annual funding commitment to support Canada’s audiovisual production sector during the transitional period. This measure is intended to help stabilize domestic production while regulatory details are reassessed.
Public priorities vs. consumer sensitivity
The policy debate highlights a clear tension in Canadian public attitudes.
On one hand, polling consistently shows strong support for cultural regulation in the digital space. Canadians broadly agree that:
- Canadian stories should remain visible on global platforms
- Foreign streaming services should contribute to domestic cultural production
- Canada has the right to regulate digital platforms operating within its borders
On the other hand, affordability remains an increasingly important concern. As households accumulate multiple streaming subscriptions, even modest price increases can influence consumer behaviour, including subscription cancellations, switching between services, or increased reliance on ad-supported tiers.
The balancing act
This creates a three-way policy challenge:
- Cultural objective: strengthening Canadian content creation and discoverability
- Industry objective: ensuring streaming platforms remain viable and compliant
- Consumer objective: maintaining affordability and predictable subscription costs
The result is an ongoing balancing act between cultural sovereignty and market economics. The effectiveness of the current regulatory approach will ultimately depend on whether it can support Canadian production without significantly increasing friction for viewers or reducing the attractiveness of streaming services in Canada’s competitive media landscape.
The Future of Streaming in Canada
The Canadian streaming landscape is expected to continue evolving quickly, shaped by both market innovation and ongoing regulatory adjustment. While streaming is already firmly established as the dominant mode of video consumption, the next phase of development is likely to focus less on adoption and more on optimisation, i.e., how services are packaged, priced, and personalised.
One of the most significant trends is the continued growth of ad-supported streaming models, as platforms respond to increasing price sensitivity among households. Alongside this, FAST (Free Ad-Supported TV) channels are expanding, offering viewers more content without subscription fees and further diversifying how audiences access video entertainment.
Bundling is also becoming more prominent, with platforms increasingly experimenting with package-style offerings to reduce churn and improve user retention. This reflects a broader shift toward making streaming ecosystems feel more like consolidated media “bundles” rather than isolated subscriptions.
At the same time, technological change is reshaping how content is discovered and consumed. Improved recommendation systems and the growing use of AI-driven personalization are making content discovery more tailored, but also raising ongoing questions about visibility for domestic Canadian programming within global platforms.
From a policy perspective, the CRTC’s ongoing review of its 2026 framework will play an important role in determining how cultural objectives and consumer affordability are balanced in practice. The outcome will help define not only the structure of Canada’s streaming market, but also the long-term visibility of Canadian content within it.
Overall, the future of streaming in Canada is less about rapid adoption and more about how a mature digital ecosystem is governed, monetised, and experienced by viewers.
Wrapping Up
Streaming has become the dominant way Canadians consume video content, with weekly usage now near-universal and subscription platforms deeply embedded in household viewing habits. At the same time, Canadians continue to express strong support for policies that promote and protect Canadian stories within an increasingly global media environment.
The Online Streaming Act and recent CRTC decisions reflect this dual reality: a cultural commitment to strengthening domestic production alongside growing attention to affordability and consumer impact. The federal government’s 2026 review highlights the ongoing effort to balance these priorities as the regulatory framework takes shape.
Ultimately, the future of streaming in Canada will depend on how successfully policymakers, platforms, and producers navigate this intersection of culture, economics, and technology, shaping not only what Canadians watch but how Canadian stories are created and discovered.