OTTAWA and GATINEAU – Profits for conventional television stations fell by 85% in 2012, according to the CRTC’s latest statistical and financial report for this sector released Thursday.
The Commission said profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) for private TV stations declined from $151.6 million to $22.9 million in 2012.
Revenues dropped by 5% from $2.14 billion in 2011 to $2.04 billion in 2012. While local advertising sales remained relatively stable at $354.6 million, down just 0.2% from the previous year, national advertising revenues decreased 7.5% from $1.47 billion in 2011 to $1.35 billion in 2012.
In contrast, expenses in that same period increased, as acquisition and production costs of programs increased from $1.36 billion in 2011 to $1.44 billion in 2012, representing a 5.8% increase.
Total expenditures on Canadian programming by private stations rose from $562.9 million in 2011 to $661.8 million in 2012. Of that amount, the CRTC said $133 million was paid to independent producers to acquire programming.
Broken down by category, conventional stations invested $58.9 million for drama series, $82.3 million for general interest programming, $353.6 million for news programs, $16.5 million for long-form documentaries, $32.3 million for other information programs, $29.4 million for music and variety shows, $68.5 million for sports programming, and $17.5 million for game shows.
The purchasing of foreign programming declined from $729 million in 2011 to $726 million in 2012, according to the CRTC report.
The report also included financial and statistical information on the CBC's French- and English-language conventional television stations. In 2012, the national public broadcaster reported advertising revenues of $372.7 million, a 1% increase from the $369.6 million generated the previous year. Programming expenditures totaled $786.1 million, 93% of which was spent on Canadian programs.
For more information on the Commission’s Conventional Television Statistical and Financial Summaries 2008-2012 report, click here.