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The Impact of Digital Innovations on Entertainment Trends in Canada

It's impossible to escape the effects that the digital world has had on every form of industry, but entertainment has possibly seen one of the most significant sea changes of all. Yes, the retail industry has seen the high street become a digital web of ecommerce, but how we consume our entertainment media in all its forms has become inextricably linked to our devices.

In Canada in particular, a country that prides itself on its adoption of and innovation in tech, the entertainment landscape has become one dominated by modern digital innovations. With that, there have been seismic changes in the nation's outlook when it comes to recreation. So how exactly has the tech world revolutionized Canadian entertainment?

Streaming a Leading Light in Canada

If you asked anyone you know how digital technology has had an impact on the average person's consumption of entertainment, their first point of reference would likely be streaming. Ever since YouTube entered the fray, streaming has been an unstoppable juggernaut. Now, subscription video streaming has become standard with services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Canada sits third in the list of nations with the highest levels of subscription video service penetration, behind only the USA and Norway.

And it's more than just video, too. Audio streaming has become a huge market. Swedish company Spotify has come to dominate the music streaming market, with Apple and YouTube Music possibly its only real competitors now. In the Great White North, recent statistics suggest that the average citizen consumes around one hour and thirty minutes of streamed music every day. That totals a little under 23 days over the full year.

The Internet is Live With the Sound of Content

And it's not just services like Netflix that have broken ground in terms of changing the Canadian entertainment ecosystem. Live streaming has become a behemoth in its own right and in unexpected niches, too. For example, it's not uncommon to see things like live dealer blackjack, in which the traditional casino game is played with a real person dealing the card in front of the camera, and there's now a need for random number generators for online blackjack.

Live streaming has also created a whole new breed of celebrities with a completely new style of content. Twitch, now owned by media and commerce giant Amazon, has democratized broadcasting for a whole new generation. One of the biggest names on the platform, and the seventh-highest in the list of streamers with the most subscribers, is Canadian xQc. That highlights just how the country has managed to embrace these innovations.

All Kinds of Gaming Takes to the Cloud

We already touched on how innovations in digital tech had seen casino gaming change up its approach. However, that's not the only example. In fact, even the video gaming world - which is already, in itself, a digital innovation - has seen massive strides in recent years. Microsoft has centered itself in the game streaming conversation with its Game Pass service, where players no longer need a disk or even necessarily a download to play the service's game.

In Canada, according to Statcounter data, Microsoft consoles claim a 70% market share. Knowing this, it is evident that digital gaming is becoming the way forward. With Game Pass - amongst other services - users can play the games without making a download directly to their console. Instead, it is essentially streamed from the cloud. If this continues, it seems likely that disks will be a relic of the past and cloud-based gaming will dominate.

No Certainties in Digital Entertainment

When it comes to what the future holds and what we can expect to see in the form of changes to the entertainment industry, it is difficult to speak with any real sense of definitive authority. It's an ever-changing landscape in which new technology is regularly introduced with little to no build-up. With VR and the Metaverse experiencing a wobbly couple of years after a period of unprecedented hype, it's impossible to make any predictions for any other tech. As it stands, we can only watch as developments unfold and react quickly in the entertainment sphere.