Here's a number that surprises people: in 2024, 46% of Canadian households — about 7.35 million of them — no longer had a traditional cable, satellite, or telecom TV subscription. That's from Convergence Research, and it's up four points in a single year.
The Canadians still holding a cable box are, quietly, the minority now. And most of them are paying somewhere between $100 and $200 a month for it.
This is the data version of the story — what cable actually costs in Canada in 2026, how fast people are leaving, and the real math on what you keep if you cut it. We run an IPTV service in Ottawa, so we have a side. But the numbers below come from the CRTC and independent researchers, not from us, and they hold up on their own.
How much does cable actually cost in Canada in 2026?
The price cable companies advertise and the price you pay are two different numbers. The gap is the promotional credit that expires in year two — after you've stopped reading the bill.
Once those credits lapse and the fees stack up, here's where a real Canadian cable bill tends to land:
| Cable package (post-promo, 2026) | Typical price / month | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Entry TV + internet bundle | $100 – $120 | $1,200 – $1,440 |
| Mid-tier with a sports tier | $140 – $165 | $1,680 – $1,980 |
| Premium (sports + movies + extras) | $180 – $220+ | $2,160 – $2,640+ |
Those aren't worst-case numbers. A Bell Fibe TV package runs roughly $86 for a basic plan and climbs past $147 for a loaded one; Rogers Ignite base TV plans start around $104 before add-ons. We break the providers down package by package in our Bell Fibe vs IPTV comparison and our Rogers Ignite TV alternatives guide.
The short version: for a household that wants sports, the honest 2026 cable number is around $150 a month, or roughly $1,800 a year — every year, with no finish line.
Why is my cable bill so much higher than the advertised price?
Because the sticker price is the beginning of the bill, not the end of it. Here's what gets added after you sign:
- Receiver / box rental: $7–$10 a month, per box
- Cloud PVR: around $8 a month
- Sports tier (TSN, Sportsnet and friends): roughly $20–$30 a month
- Crave or movie add-ons: up to $22 a month
- Professional installation: $50–$150 up front
- Promo expiry: a $25–$40/month jump in year two, automatically
- Annual rate hikes: cable prices in Canada climb about 4–6% a year on their own
Stack two or three of those on a $99 starter bundle and you're past $160 without adding a single channel you'd actually watch. Rogers even added a mid-contract box-fee hike in late 2024, which is a big part of why so many customers went looking for the exit.
If you're staring at your own bill trying to figure out which of these you're paying for, message our Ottawa team on WhatsApp — we'll read it with you line by line, no signup required.
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Plans from $4.58/mo →How many Canadians are actually cutting cable?
Enough that the trend is no longer a trend — it's the market. The independent research here is consistent and citeable.
- 46% of Canadian households (7.35 million) had no traditional TV subscription in 2024 — up from 42% a year earlier — and Convergence Research projects that to reach 54% by 2027.
- Linear TV subscription revenue fell 5% to about $6.5 billion in 2024, while Canadian streaming revenue grew 15% to $4.2 billion.
- The CRTC's own reporting shows average household spending on cable and satellite distribution declining year after year, as that money shifts to online services.
- Canadian households now pay for 2.6 streaming services on average — which is a hint at where the cable money is going, and a warning that streaming subscriptions add up too.
That last point matters. Cancelling cable only to sign up for five separate streaming apps can quietly rebuild the same bill, minus the live channels and sports. The households that come out ahead are the ones that replace cable with a single service that carries the live TV they actually watch.
The takeaway isn't "everyone's quitting TV." It's that Canadians are quitting the cable bill while keeping the shows — and the ones who do it well replace $150 a month with something far cheaper.
How much do you save by switching from cable to IPTV?
This is the number that made this page worth writing. IPTV delivers the same live channels over the internet you already pay for, and it's priced the opposite way from cable: one flat rate, everything included, cheaper the longer you commit.
Here's what our plans cost, straight from the pricing page:
| Plan | Monthly | 12 months | Effective / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | $14.99 | $54.99 | $4.58 |
| Premium | $19.99 | $89.99 | $7.50 |
Now put the annual numbers side by side. A mid-tier Canadian cable household with sports versus IPTV Premium, over three years, with cable's normal rate hikes baked in:
| Cable (with sports) | IPTV (Premium) | |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | ~$1,800 | $89.99 |
| Year 2 | ~$1,900 | $89.99 |
| Year 3 | ~$2,000 | $89.99 |
| 3-year total | ~$5,700 | ~$270 |
| You keep | — | ~$5,400 |
Even measured against cable's cheapest real package, most households save $1,300 to $2,300 a year. Over a single two-year cable contract, that's the price of a used car — for the same games and the same channels.
If you want the full side-by-side with the honest trade-offs and a step-by-step switching guide, that lives in our companion piece, IPTV vs cable in Canada.
What's the catch — is cheaper cable worth the switch?
Price isn't the whole story, and pretending cable has no advantages would make me the kind of seller you shouldn't trust. So here's the straight version.
Cable runs on a managed line, so it doesn't lean on your home Wi-Fi — a shaky-internet night doesn't touch it. It's one vendor, one bill, one number to call. And its PVR-and-remote experience is smoother out of the box for people who record a lot of live TV.
IPTV's trade is that it's only as steady as your connection. On a reliable 25 Mbps Canadian home connection — ordinary for most households — the day-to-day picture is genuinely hard to tell from cable, in HD or 4K. Below that, or on weak Wi-Fi, you'll notice it.
We work through that honest question — is the saving worth it for your home — in is IPTV worth it in 2026?. And whichever way you lean, read a couple of our other IPTV buying guides before you decide.
Where these numbers come from
For the people who like to check the homework — and for writers who'd like to cite it:
- Cord-cutting figures (46% in 2024, 54% by 2027) and the linear-vs-streaming revenue split are from Convergence Research's annual Canadian "Couch Potato" report, as reported in March 2025.
- Household TV-spending trends are from the CRTC's Communications Monitoring / Canadian Telecommunications Market Report.
- Package prices are drawn from Bell and Rogers published rate cards for 2026, plus the standard equipment and add-on fees both providers list.
- IPTV pricing is our own current pricing, shown in full above.
FAQ
How much does the average Canadian pay for cable per month? A real post-promo cable bill in Canada usually lands between $100 and $200 a month once equipment rental, a sports tier, and fees are included. Households that want sports typically pay around $150, or roughly $1,800 a year.
Is it really cheaper to switch from cable to IPTV? Yes, and it isn't close. A full year of IPTV costs $54.99 to $89.99, versus $1,300 to $2,400+ a year for cable. Even cable's cheapest real package costs more per month than IPTV costs per year.
How many Canadians have cut the cord? Convergence Research found 46% of Canadian households — about 7.35 million — had no traditional cable, satellite, or telecom TV subscription in 2024, and projects that figure will pass 54% by 2027.
Do I have to cancel my internet to switch to IPTV? No. IPTV streams over the internet you already have, so you keep your existing provider and cancel only the TV portion of the bill. Plenty of people stay with Bell or Rogers for internet and simply drop the cable package.
Will a cheaper service hold up during a big game? On a stable connection of 15–25 Mbps with a reliable provider, yes — the feed is 4K and steady. Buffering, when it happens, is almost always the Wi-Fi or the provider, not IPTV as a technology.
If the numbers on your last cable bill made you wince, you're not alone — you're in the same boat as 7 million other Canadian households. When you're ready to see what your own savings would look like, message our Ottawa team and we'll walk through it with your actual bill, no pressure and nothing to cancel until you've tested it yourself.