OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s broadcasting distribution companies continued to show healthy growth as the sector’s collective total revenues grew by $1.1 billion to reach $11.4 billion in 2009, according to a CRTC report.
Cable’s revenue growth slowed marginally to 11.9% last year after having increased by over 16% in both 2007 and 2008. Total revenues climbed from $8.2 billion in 2008 to $9.2 billion in 2009m while operating expenses rose by 10.6% over the same period, or from $4.6 billion to $5.1 billion.
The number of Canadian households that obtained basic-television service from a cable company grew by 2.2% to 8.1 million subscribers.
Between 2008 and 2009, total revenues for direct-to-home (DTH) satellite distribution and multipoint distribution system (MDS) companies increased by 7%, going from $2 billion to $2.2 billion. There was little change in operating expenses as they increased only slightly from $1.66 billion to $1.73 billion.
The number of DTH and MDS subscribers to basic service was 2.3% higher, rising to 2.8 million.
Broadcasting distribution companies contributed $352.4 million to Canadian programming, an increase of 8.3% in one year. Of this total, $179.3 million was directed to the Canadian Television Fund, $50.3 million to independent funds and $122.8 million to local expression, such as cable community channels.
In 2009, cable companies paid $1.7 billion in wholesale fees to the pay and specialty services they distribute, an increase of 10.6% over the $1.6 billion paid in 2007. Similarly, payments made by DTH and MDS companies to their affiliates increased by 8.6% in one year, rising from $740.8 million to $804.5 million.
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