A continued decline in advertising contributed to a slight 1.3% dip in operating revenue for the Canadian TV industry last year, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
TV advertising revenues fell 2.3% last year, dragging overall revenues down 1.3% to $7.5 billion.
Specialty was the only unaffected industry sector, with overall revenues increasing 5.2% to $3.3 billion. The increase is attributable to an 8.1% increase in cable subscription revenues and a 4.8% increase in satellite subscription revenues, as well as a 2.7% increase in advertising revenue to $1.3 billion.
While programming and production expenses for the specialty industry declined 1.7% to $1.7 billion, the sector continues to account for the largest proportion of the industry’s programming and production expenses.
Revenues for private and public conventional TV channels fell a combined 6%, with those for public and non-commercial television falling 8%. The advertising picture for public/non-commercial broadcasters was particularly grim, with airtime sales falling 10.6% to $345.7 million.
That decline will be further exacerbated in coming months, as CBC Television faces the loss of the approximately $100 million a year in advertising revenue generated by Hockey Night in Canada.
Private conventional channels were also negatively impacted by ad declines, with revenues falling 3.9% to $1.8 billion. While private conventional channels still accounted for more than half (51.9%) of all advertising revenues, their share of the TV ad market continues to decrease.
Private conventional TV losses were partly offset by a $40.5 million contribution from the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), although the segment still lost $11.7 million last year.
Losses for the public and non-commercial sector, meanwhile, were offset by an industry-leading 7.1% decrease in programming and production expenses to nearly $1 billion—below their 2010 level.
