OTTAWA – Anybody in the industry who’s been paying attention to what’s going on around them — or who had even a passing interest in April’s CRTC hearing into specialty services and broadcast distribution undertaking policies, read no further.
For those of you who like to re-hash mature statistics, here goes. Statistics Canada released its compiled revenue figures for the Canadian TV industry, saying: “While conventional television revenues declined for the first time in a decade in 2007, revenues for pay and specialty television continued to climb.”
“Private conventional television experienced a slight recovery after stagnating in 2006,” continued its release this morning. “This segment faced a particular challenge in 2007 as a result of a weak advertising market. Advertising sales generally account for about 94% of this segment’s annual revenues. Advertising revenue for the television sector as a whole increased only 1.8% in 2007, the smallest growth in a decade, while the share of private conventional television continued to decline.”
Adds the StatsCan release:
* The pay TV segment experienced the strongest growth in the whole sector, driven largely by the increasing popularity of pay-per-view television and video-on-demand. Revenues from those services increased a substantial 25.8% in 2007 to $197.8 million, accounting for almost two-thirds of the growth in the pay television segment.
* The specialty television segment also had a strong year, with revenues up 8%. Its two main sources of income (subscriptions and advertising revenues) increased, although less so than in 2006.
* The weak performance of conventional television compared with pay and specialty television is part of a strong long-term trend. Conventional television accounted for 55.9% of all television broadcasting revenues in 2007, considerably less than the 79.4% a decade earlier.
* As for profitability, the profit margin before interest and taxes for all private television broadcasters rose slightly between 2006 and 2007. Pay and specialty television channels accounted for almost 85% of private television profits in 2007.
For more, go to www.statcan.ca
