Canadian cablecasters in 2007 continued to increase their market share against phone giants, thanks to cable telephony, according to Statistics Canada.

The government statistics agency said Canada’s top cable operators — Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications, Groupe Videotron and Cogeco — added 1.6 million new subscribers in 2007, the last year surveyed. That took the subscriber base last year for Canadian cable operators to 14.2 million.

‘This major advance into the telephone market was part of a process of diversification of services which started just over 10 years ago with the launch of Internet access services,’ StatsCan said of Canadian cable’s packaging of cable, phone and Internet services to woo new customers.

Digital Home Canada last month estimated that Rogers, Shaw, Videotron and Cogeco in 2008 have each month added around 60,000 new so-called triple-play subscribers that purchase cable, phone and Internet access services.

As of Sept. 30, Digital Home calculated that Rogers has around 800,000 triple-play subscribers, mostly in Ontario, against 797,000 for Videotron in Quebec, Shaw with 611,931 customers in Western Canada, and Cogeco with another 141,000 customers in Quebec and Ontario.

StatsCan said cable operators are signing up fewer new traditional cable TV subscribers, and since 2005 have relied on cable-based phone services to drive new revenue streams.

According to StatsCan, cable operators’ TV subscription revenues dropped from 92.1% of total subscription revenues in 2000 to 60.6% in 2007.