Broadcast, TV service revenues down again: CRTC

New data released by the CRTC Thursday shows the industry-wide trend of tumbling broadcast sector revenue continued last year, with broadcasters and TV service providers both seeing declines. Between 2017 and 2018, revenues for the total broadcasting sector -- both TV service providers and broadcasters, and including radio and TV -- fell by 1.2 per cent. It was the fifth straight year of revenue declines for BDUs, which saw a two-per-cent decline of $168 million. In 2017, BDUs recorded $8.58 billion in revenue, and $8.41 billion in 2018. Set-top box rentals increased four per cent from 2017 (the only growth area for BDUs), while subscribers fell by 0.9 per cent. The drop in subscribers from 2017 to 2018, however, was smaller than the drop from 2016 to 2017, which was 1.7 per cent. The figures are included in the CRTC’s 2018 broadcasting financial summaries, released Thursday. The decline in TV subscribers reflects the ‘cord-cutting’ phenomenon, where customers get rid of their traditional TV packages, often in favor of over-the-top (OTT) streaming services. Earlier this year, the CRTC’s Communications Monitoring Report estimated that OTT services like Netflix Inc. generated almost as much revenue as private and CBC/Radio-Canada conventional television combined, at $2.4 billion and $2.6 billion respectively. Commercial radio also declined in revenue generated, but the rate at which revenue is shrinking in that segment is slowing, the CRTC summary noted. In the radio sector, local advertising continues to be the dominant source of revenue, but it is gradually decreasing in favor of national advertising, which has in fact grown in recent years. In 2014, national advertising accounted for $497 million in revenue for commercial radio, and has steadily increased each of the next five years, accounting for $520 million in revenue in 2018. Local advertising dropped 0.9 per cent from 2017 to 2018, while national advertising revenue increased “modestly” at 0.7 per cent. Conventional television “continue to feel the effects of weakening advertising sales,” according the CRTC summary, with commercial conventional television revenue dropping 4.2 per cent between 2017 and 2018, more than the five-year average of 3.9 per cent. The drop amounts to a decline of $67 million, with total revenues in 2018 at $1.61 billion. CBC, however, reported revenue growth of 12.6 per cent to just north of $1 billion for its conventional television, up from $944 million in 2017. Most of the increase, according to the CRTC’s summary, came from national advertising associated with the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Despite the increase in its advertising revenue, the CBC in its annual report in October advocated that the government should migrate the public broadcaster away from relying on advertising by boosting federal dollars to it. Along with the revenue increase, spending on Canadian programming was also up from $509 million to $580 million at the CBC, again mostly attributable to programming around the Olympics, according to the CRTC’s summary. Specialty and on-demand services revenue fell for the second year in a row. Specialty channel revenue fell 1.8 per cent, a figure that the CRTC said “pales in comparison” to the 14.5 per cent negative growth rate of on-demand services this year. The “top 10” on-demand and specialty channels pulled in some $1.9 billion in revenue, while the other 280 services generated $2.3 billion in revenue. CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify which revenue figures refer to broadcasters, BDUs and the broadcasting system as a whole. — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Broadcast, TV service revenues down again: CRTC

News | June 20, 2019

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Broadcast, TV service revenues down again: CRTC

News | June 20, 2019

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