Netflix, Inc. Dominating Canadian Prime-Time Hours

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Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is capturing more space in the Canadian online-video market. Netflix Canada now holds up to 40% of the bandwidth usage in the evening hours, according to a report issued on Thursday by Canadian researcher Sandvine. However, according to Sandvine report in March 2014, the company accounted for 34.2% downstream usage during prime-time in the evening, in the US market.

Impressive show by U.S. firm in Canada

Three years ago, when the online-video streaming service launched in Canada, it only garnered 13.5% of the evening traffic north of the border. Presently, YouTube is the largest source of mobile phone traffic totaling to 20% of downstream traffic in Canada.

Sandvine noted in its report that since two U.S. companies, Netflix and YouTube are already doing well in Canada, prospect of other streaming services increases. The report mentioned, “No other paid over-the-top video service accounts for more than 1 percent of traffic in the evening, making Canada a prime candidate for the introduction of new streaming options.”

The report notes that the situation in the United States is in stark contradiction to that of Canada. In the United States, Netflix is ruling the charts whereas Amazon Instant video, HULU and HBOGO add to around 7% of the peak downstream traffic.

Rivals planning to challenge Netflix

Rogers Media and Shaw Media in Canada are all gearing up to launch their own online portal named Shomi to compete with Netflix Canada. Bell Media is, also, prepping to launch its own video streaming service in Canada. Big companies like Google and Netflix are being urged by the Canadian TV producers and broadcasters to abide by the regulations set for the online video services, and to assist in financing local content production.

A report few months back revealed that one out of every 3 English users in Canada uses the U.S. site to access Netflix, but it could soon end if the company succumbs to the pressure of restricting users outside the United States to access the US site.

Australians lead the race, when it comes to accessing Netflix through VPN as around 200,000 Australian households are accessing U.S. version of Netflix. Some online-streaming services in the United States such as HULU have already blocked users, who access their service through virtual private networks and proxy servers for the past several months.

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