Breaking down the pandemic impact on Canadian specialty channels

By Amanda OYE

Some bright spots remain CANADIAN SPECIALTY CHANNEL revenues took a hard hit in 2020, thanks to Covid-19, with independents taking bigger shots than vertically integrated (VI) companies. The recently published CRTC 2020 Individual Discretionary and On-Demand Statistical and Financial Summaries for the year ended August 31, 2020 shows Canada’s VI companies, taken together, reported a 6.9% year-over-year decrease in total revenues to $2.9 billion in 2020. The CRTC considers VI companies to include Bell Media, Rogers Media, Quebecor Media, and Corus Entertainment. These companies spent 36.2% of their total revenues on Canadian programming, but total expenditures on Canadian programming was...