OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s television services are back in business. CRTC figures released Thursday in a press release, (based largely on data from individual companies which we actually broke down here and here way back in January), show that the return of the advertising market translated into some, albeit modest, profits at conventional broadcasters, though the country’s specialty and pay broadcasters fared better.
According to the Commission’s count, revenue at the country’s private conventional television climbed 9% to approximately $2.15 billion in 2010 broadcast year, while expenses increased 1.7%. This resulted in profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) rebounding from a deficit of $116.6 million in 2009 to a profit of $11.5 million in 2010.
The conventional ‘casters made $1.6 billion from national advertising, $350 million in local advertising, and $65.9 million from the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF). An additional $117.9 million in revenue was attributed to “other sources”.
(Ed note: While a return to the black appears promising at first glance, it is worth noting that the without the LPIF, conventional broadcasters’ losses would still have been significant. And advertising revenue remains below 2006 levels, a worrisome long term trend).
Pay and specialty services, which include pay-per-view television services and as video-on-demand services, saw revenues jump 11.1% to $3.46 billion. With expenses up 8.1%, PBIT improved from $728.6 million in 2009 to $877.3 million in 2010.
These services collected $1.58 billion from cable television subscribers and $668 million from direct-to-home satellite subscribers, while also earning $1.09 billion from national advertising, $19.6 million from local advertising, and $99.9 million from other sources.
The CBC, by comparison, saw a 14.1% increase in advertising revenues over the 2009 year which the Commission said represents $338.8 million worth of advertising.
For the first time, the CRTC also broke out financials for the country’s large ownerships groups whose services accounted for 90% of all private television revenues in the year ended August 31, 2010. Shaw Media saw its profits more than double from $95.1 million in 2009 to $226.2 million in 2010, followed by Bell-CTVglobemedia which saw profits dip to $164.4 million from $166.4 million in 2009. Quebecor Media recorded profits of $69.3 million, up from $53.3 million in 2009, while Rogers is back in the black with $39.6 million after showing an $800,000 loss in 2009.
After stagnating in 2009, investment in Canadian programming increased by 12.6% for private conventional television and 8.8% for pay and specialty services. Conventional TV spent $696.3 million on Canadian programming (including $304.6 million on news programs alone), while pay and specialty services spent $1.12 billion on Canadian programming, with the bulk of that ($353.2 million) spent on sports programming.
In 2010, the broadcasting industry employed 11,761 people and paid $925.3 million in salaries. Private conventional television experienced a workforce decrease of 6.3%, while the pay and specialty services workforce remained relatively stable.
