Despite increased competition from satellite and streaming services, revenue for Canada’s 695 commercial radio stations remained relatively stable in 2014 according to new data from the CRTC.
Total revenues for the country’s AM and FM stations fell 0.52%, to $1.614 billion.
Commercial stations increased their expenditures by $19 million over the previous year, to a total of $1.27 billion. That resulted in a decrease in profits before interest and taxes (PBIT), to $299 million from $328 million in 2013.
A 4.4% increase in national advertising sales – to $497.4 million from $476.3 million the previous year – was only partly offset by a 2.9% decrease in local time sales, which fell to $1.09 billion from $1.12 billion the previous year.
The addition of 12 stations to the FM dial brought the number of FM stations in the country to 568. Combined, those stations generated revenues of $1.3 billion – a slight 0.4% decrease from $1.33 billion the previous year.
Revenues for English stations decreased 1.1%, to $1.04 billion from $1.05 billion the previous year, while French stations saw a 2.4% increase to $259.2 million from $253.2 million in 2013.
The county’s 24 ethnic stations experienced a 1.3% increase in revenues, to $21.3 million.
Revenues for the country’s 127 AM stations decreased 1.3%, to $290.9 million from $294.6 million the previous year.
While CBC raised $1.1 million from the sale of national advertising on its Espace Musique and Radio 2 services, revenues for its 82 radio services decreased 5.6% to $287.6 million – largely because of a decline in parliamentary appropriations.
Earlier this week, Canadian broadcast analyst and onetime CBC staffer Barry Kiefl said that the public broadcaster “misjudged” advertiser demand for the four minutes per hour of inventory on its services.
