OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Led by specialty TV, Canada’s pay, pay-per-view (PPV) and video-on-demand (VOD) television services generated $3.7 billion in revenues in 2011, a 7.9% jump over the previous year.
According to CRTC data released Tuesday, the increase comes as a result of a 10.9% growth in advertising revenues totaling $1.2 billion, and a 7% increase in subscriber revenues that exceeded $2.4 billion. Expenses grew from $2.5 billion in 2010 to $2.7 billion in 2011.
As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) improved to $930.5 million, with a PBIT margin of 24.9%, up from $873.9 million in 2010 when the PBIT margin was 25.3%.
During the past five years, this sector of the broadcasting industry has increased its revenues by 36.7%, while PBIT margins have hovered between 22% and 25%, reflecting a strong demand for these services.
Sources of revenues
Using the annual reports from these services, the CRTC broke out 2011 revenues as follows:
– $1.7 billion from terrestrial subscribers;
– $698.9 million from direct-to-home satellite subscribers;
– $1.2 billion from national advertising;
– $30.2 million from local advertising; and
– $94.4 million from other sources.
English-language and bilingual services earned $3.1 billion of the total revenues, while French-language services brought in $587.2 million.
Revenue by sectors
Specialty television services captured the largest share of the total revenues, $2.9 billion, which included:
– $2.4 billion from 49 analog services, and
– $479.8 million from 113 digital services.
In 2010, total revenues for specialty television services were $2.7 billion for a PBIT margin of 27.8%.
Pay, pay-per-view and VOD services saw their revenues increase by 7.2%, going from $798.6 million in 2010, with a PBIT margin of 16.7%, to $855.6 million in 2011 when the PBIT margin was 16.4%.
Canadian programming
In 2011, these services spent $1.3 billion on Canadian programming, an 8.5% increase over the previous year.
Spending on Canadian programming by specialty services included $187 million for news programs; $241 million for programs of national interests (drama series, long-form documentaries, and Canadian award shows); $397 million for sports programming; $96 million for human-interest programming, and $241 million for other types of programming.
Investments in non-Canadian programming increased slightly to $278 million in 2011 from $252 million in 2010.
Employment
In 2011, these sectors employed 5,900 people and paid a total of $461 million in salaries. In comparison, they employed 5,495 people and paid $415 million in salaries the previous year.
Click here for statistical and financial summaries from 2007 through 2011.
