Revenue for Canada’s specialty, pay, pay-per-view (PPV) and video-on-demand (VOD) television services has grown an average of 7% over the past five years, surpassing $4 billion for the first time in 2013, according to new data released Wednesday by the CRTC.
Total revenue for the 229 services for the year ended Aug. 31 was $4.09 billion, a 3.1% increase from the previous year. National advertising revenues increased 2.8% to $1.27 billion, while local ad revenue was $29.3 million, down from $31 million the previous year.
Revenues for English-language and bilingual services were $3.3 billion, while French services earned $687.1 million.
While revenues climbed, expenses decreased from $2.93 billion to $2.92 billion, which caused profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) to increase to $1.08 billion from $913.2 million the previous year.
Specialty services garnered the largest share of revenues at $3.3 billion. Revenue for pay services decreased 2.8%, from $457.8 million to $444.8 million, although their profit before interest and taxes (PBIT) was largely unchanged, going from 22.2% to 22.3%.
Revenues for on-demand services fell to $354.2 million from $379.7 million the previous year, although their PBIT margin improved to 2.2% from 0.5%.
Spending on non-Canadian programs increased to $340 million from $293 million in 2012.
