OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Canadian local television stations saw profits plunge in 2014, according to the CRTC’s latest statistical and financial report for this sector released Monday.
According to the report Conventional Television – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2010-2014, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) for private local TV stations dropped from -$2.3 million to -$138.7 million, and the PBIT margin decreased from -0.1% to -7.7%.
Revenues fell by 7.2% from $1.94 billion in 2013 to $1.8 billion for the broadcast year ended August 31, 2014. While revenues from the sale of local advertising declined 5% from $351.2 million in 2013 to $333.6 million in 2014, private local television stations also experienced a 7.8% drop in national advertising revenues from $1.28 billion in 2013 to $1.18 billion in 2014. Expenses in that same period went from $1.85 billion in 2013 to $1.84 billion in 2014, a slight decrease of 0.4%, the report continues.
Investments by private local television stations in Canadian-made programs increased 2.3% from $605.4 million in 2013 to $619.3 million in 2014. Broken down by category, private local television stations invested $60.4 million for drama series, $5.3 million for feature films, $84.7 million for general interest programs, $361.1 million for news programs, $6.3 million for long-form documentaries, $29.3 million for other information programs, $22.3 million for music and variety shows, $1.1 million for sports programming, $19 million for game shows, $25.5 million for reality TV shows, $3.7 million for awards shows and $0.5 million for other programs. As part of these investments, local television stations paid $138.6 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 2014, the national public broadcaster reported $474.6 million in advertising revenues in 2014, a 43% increase from the $331.1 million generated in 2013. This increase is largely attributable to the broadcast of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, the FIFA Soccer World Cup in Brazil, and an entire season of National Hockey League games. CBC/SRC's programming expenditures totaled $810.8 million, 97% of which was spent on Canadian programs.
