OTTAWA – Canadians spent $134 million on movies from pay television providers in 2004/05, up 27.5% compared to the previous year, says a report today from Statistics Canada.
However, don’t think all that money went to the two "pay-TV" providers in Canada. For Statscan’s purposes, pay television doesn’t necessarily mean pay-TV the way those in this industry think of it. Sometimes it means any TV where a subscription fee is paid. However, the release offers no definition.
On the conventional TV side, movie revenue dropped 6.7% to $404.4 million in 2004/05.
Canadians actually returned to theatres in droves, even leaving behind their DVDs. "Revenues from distributions to cinemas rose sharply, while revenues from sales of DVDs and videocassettes leveled off after surging since 2000," says the press release.
Total film and video industry revenues climbed to more than $3.5 billion in 2004/2005, up 3% from the previous year. While this increase was less than the 4.8% revenue gain the year before, the profit margin improved to 22.7% from 21.8% in 2003/2004.
Revenue from distribution to movie theatres grew 16.6% to $446.3 million, while revenue from the wholesaling of DVDs and videocassettes remained unchanged at just over $1.8 billion.
Data from the Motion Picture Theatres Survey, released on July 14, 2006, showed that movie attendance increased in 2004/2005. This was mainly because of a 20.4% rise in attendance at drive-in theatres. In addition, Canadian households spent an average of $112 on movies at the cinema in 2004/2005, up from $106 in 2003/2004, according to the Survey of Household Spending.
Foreign sales of Canadian-content films and videos reached $331.9 million in 2004/2005, up 3.4% from the previous year. (This figure excludes productions distributed directly to foreign clients by producers.)
Sales of pre-recorded videos (cassettes and DVDs and it’s not clear from the release where the video on demand market falls in all of this) may have slowed down in 2004/2005, but Canadians have not given up watching their favourite movie videos at home. Sales of pre-recorded videos still account for more than half of the total revenues for distributors.
In 2004/2005, 51% of the $3.5 billion in total revenue of film and video distributors came from the wholesaling of pre-recorded videos, especially from DVDs. That was down from 53% in the previous year, but more than the 49% reported in 2002/2003.
DVDs, the favourite format in Canada, accounted for 77% of the video wholesaling market, up from 71% in 2003/2004.
In 2001, the earliest year for which data are available, less than 20% of Canadian households had DVD players, according to the Survey of Household Spending. By 2003, this proportion had surpassed the 50% mark, and by 2004 it was approaching 70%.
Canadian content products continued to show improved revenues in 2004/2005, especially in the movie theatre and the pay-TV markets. This growth in revenue was just enough to maintain their overall share of the domestic market at 11%, the same as in 2003/2004.
In the pay-TV market, Canadian content accounted for 24% of revenues, the same as in the previous year, but up from less than 22% in 2002/2003. The same was true at movie theatres where Canadian content maintained its 4% share of the market, up from 3% in 2002/2003.
In the conventional television market, Canadian content share fell from 17% in 2003/2004 to 16%, but up from the 14% share in 2002/2003.
Film and video distributors and video wholesalers reported total spending of more than $2.7 billion in 2004/2005, 2% higher than in 2003/2004, says the release.
The modest increase in expenses did not affect the bottom line of the industry as profits rose to $802.1 million dollars. This represented 22.7% of total revenue, up from 21.8% in 2003/2004, and a significant increase over profits of 13.4% reported in 2002/2003.
Licensing and royalty payments rose marginally from the previous year. Of the $847 million in total licensing fees and royalties paid out, 17% were for Canadian products, up from 11% in the previous year.
www.statscan.ca
