TORONTO – With digital channels only beginning to report positive EBITDA in 2007, and analog subscription revenue growth intact, the much anticipated mass exodus to digital channels still is more a dream than a reality, according to a report by Genuity Capital.
The report by Genuity Capital’s Carl Bayard also found based on last year’s numbers that:
– CRTC channel-by-channel data reveals that while the industry is no undergoing change, the pace of change is less dramatic than might be assumed.
– The most lucrative areas of sports and children’s programming continue to outperform on an absolute revenue basis and also outperform when considering Genuity Capital’s advertising revenue per subscriber metric.
– HGTV (owned by CW Media) has cracked the top ten list of revenue generating specialty channels, up from No. 17 in F2003.
– CMT (owned by Corus) gained five notches in revenue rankings to No. 25.
– Series+ (owned by Astral Media) gained seven notches in revenue rankings, going from No. 33 to No. 26 from F2003-2007.
– CTVglobemedia maintains its stronghold on total revenue share in Canada, with Astral Media maintaining its second place, while (the consolidated holdings of) Canwest Media Inc. was able to improve its standing to third.
