OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Canadian local television stations saw profits plunge in 2013, according to the CRTC’s latest statistical and financial report for this sector released Tuesday.
According to the report Conventional Television – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2009-2013, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) for private local TV stations dropped from $22.9 million in 2012 to -$2.3 million, and the PBIT margin decreased from 1.1% to -0.1%.
Revenues dropped by 4.6% from $2.04 billion last year to $1.94 billion for the broadcast year ended August 31, 2013. While revenues from the sale of local advertising declined 1% from $355 million in 2012 to $351 million in 2013, private local television stations also experienced a 5% drop in national advertising revenues from $1.35 billion in 2012 to $1.28 billion in 2013. Expenses in that same period went from $1.92 billion in 2012 to $1.85 billion in 2013, a decrease of 3.5%.
Total expenditures on Canadian programming dropped by 8.5%, from $661.8 million in 2012 to $605.4 million in 2013. However, the report notes, investments in sports-related programs were higher in 2012 due to coverage of the London Summer Olympic Games. If sports-related programs are excluded, investments in other programs made by Canadians rose by 1% from $593.3 million in 2012 to $598.9 million in 2013.
Broken down by category, private local television stations invested $66 million for drama series, $73 million for human interest programs, $355.3 million for news programs, $7.9 million for long-form documentaries, $31.1 million for other information programs, $24.5 million for music and variety shows, $6.5 million for sports programming and $19.4 million for game shows. As part of these investments, local television stations paid $139 million to Canadian independent producers.
The report also included financial and statistical information on the CBC's French- and English-language conventional television stations. In 2013, the national public broadcaster reported advertising revenues of $331.1 million, an 11% decrease from the $372.7 million generated the previous year. CBC/SRC’s programming expenditures totaled $724.6 million, 97% of which was spent on Canadian programs.
