A report on Canadian couch potatoes and online surfers by Convergence Consulting Group on Monday said 2014 saw an estimated 95,000 Canadians abandon their traditional TV subscriptions.

That fall was well up from 2013 when the estimated decline was put at 13,000 TV subscribers.

Toronto-based Convergence also forecast a TV subscriber decline of 97,000 for 2015.

The report pointed to a flight from traditional cable and satellite TV subscriptions that started in 2012, noting that BDUs experienced “significant TV subscriber losses” in 2014.

An estimated 3.09 million Canadians, or 21.6% of households, did not have a traditional linear TV subscription with a cable, satellite, or phone-based TV access provider at the end of 2014.

That’s up from 2.85 million Canadians, or 20.1% of households at the year-earlier stage. The report forecast that 3.33 million Canadians, or 23% of households are expected to be without traditional TV subscriptions at the end of 2015.

Cable, satellite TV, and phone-based TV services like Optik TV and Bell Fibe are still popular with Canadians, with subscription revenue from those sectors growing 2% to $9.1 billion at the end of 2014, the report said.

In those categories, performers like Bell and Telus meant the Canadian TV market share of phone giants is expected to be 21.5% at the end of 2015, up from a 18.5% share at the end of 2014.

Cable access providers had a 61.2% share of the Canadian TV market at the end of 2014, and satellite TV had a 20.3% share for the same period.

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