GATINEAU – Profits of private conventional broadcasters have risen to pre-recession levels mainly due to cuts in overall program expenses says the CRTC in financial information it released Wednesday for the broadcast year ending August 31, 2011.
While revenues for private conventional television stations remained nearly frozen from 2010 to 2011 ($2.147 billion to $2.153 billion), broadcasters managed to cut 7.2% from their operating expenses, reducing them to $1.9 billion from $2.05 billion. The result is that operating profits rose from $11.5 million in 2010 to $160.6 million last year. Including contributions from the Local Programming Improvement Fund, the operating margins experienced a similar increase from 0.5% to 7.5%, which are the highest levels recorded since 2005.
Local advertising revenues grew by 1.5%, rising from $350.1 million in 2010, to $355.3 million in 2011. National advertising revenues however remained nearly stagnant at $1.47 billion, up just 0.4%.
Investments in the acquisition and production of programs fell from $1.5 billion in 2010 to $1.4 billion in 2011. Excluding the 2010 Canadian programming expenses related to sports, which reached $141 million including the Winter Olympic Games, private broadcasters spent 4.2% more on Canadian programming in 2011. Programming expenditures rose from $540.2 million in 2010 to $562.9 million in 2011, with $153 million paid to independent producers to acquire programming.
The CRTC also reports that spending on foreign programming also declined by 5.8%, declining from $773.9 million in 2010 to $729 million in 2011.
Canadian programming
Spending on Canadian programming included $58.3 million for drama series, $71.6 million for general interest programming, $316.9 million for news programs, $15.5 million for long-form documentaries, $39.5 million for other information programs, $33 million for music and variety shows, $0.8 million for sports programming, and $22 million for game shows.
Employment
In 2011, private conventional broadcasters employed 6,337 people and paid $531.7 million in salaries, this is up slightly from the previous year when 6,282 staff were employed and paid $511 million in salaries. The average salary in 2011 was $83,915, up about 3.2% from the 2010 level of $81,342.
CBC
The report also includes financial and statistical information on the CBC’s French- and English-language conventional television stations. In 2011, the national public broadcaster reported advertising revenues of $369.6 million, which represented a 9.1% increase from revenues of $338.8 million the previous year.
Additionally, the CBC’s programming expenditures totalled $758.5 million, 94% of which was spent on Canadian programs. In 2010, the CBC spent $732.7 million programming, 93.3% of which was devoted to Canadian programs.
