OTTAWA – Private radio and television broadcasters contribute millions in airtime and tens of thousands of volunteer hours to their communities, says Broadcasting 2008: the Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual report on the industry, released this morning at the CAB convention in Ottawa.
The total value of pledges and PSAs reached $314.5 million over the past year while the time volunteered by employees – on-air personnel and others – totaled more than 230,000 hours.
“Canadian private broadcasters’ commitments to their communities have always been central to their operations,” said CAB president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell, in a release. “Our survey of members, carried out in fiscal year 2007-2008, provides quantifiable and reliable data on private broadcasters’ tangible and intangible examples of corporate social responsibility, all willingly given. Our members are proud of their involvement and of the tremendous impact they have on their communities.”
The report presents research and data from the CAB and a number of other sources, to build a factual summary of the industry overview of the private broadcasting industry in this country.
According to the document, broadcasting accounts for 16% of the cultural sector’s GDP and is also one of the three largest cultural subsectors in terms of job creation, representing 9% of direct employment in cultural industries.
Moreover, in spite of the fact that the advertising market is highly competitive, and is becoming increasingly fragmented, more than one-third of total ad spending in Canada goes to television and radio, and television claims a greater share of ad spending than any other medium.
Canadians have three times as many television choices as people in France and more than seven times as many choices as people in the U.S., notes the release. Canadians turn first to Canadian TV and radio with 66% of all television viewing in Canada to private conventional, specialty, pay and PPV television, and about 80% of radio tuning in Canada goes to Canada’s private broadcasters.
It also points out that private broadcasters contribute to Canadian content through their Canadian Content Development payments (radio) and their expenditures on Canadian programming (TV). These contributions total $1.6 billion in 2006-07, more than 25% of the industry’s total revenues. “In comparison, BDU contributions to Canadian content via the Canadian Television Fund, other BDU funds, and cable community channels represent 5% of total BDU revenues,” adds the release.
With regard to copyright, “the total hours tuned to music formats have declined in five years, the cost of music has increased as the copyright burden for radio is greater than ever before. The Report observes that copyright payments, however, are increasing and multiplying to the point that they no longer reflect any form of fair value exchange between the radio and music industries,” it reads.
“It is important to note that this report reflects financial data for the broadcast year ending August 31, 2007, and does not take into account recent economic changes that have occurred since that date,” it adds.
