Canadian broadcasting industry sees decline in 2017, CRTC finds
Report shows revenue down 3.3% to $17.3 billion from 2016 to 2017
Canada’s broadcasting industry shrank last year as television and radio revenue continued to fall, according to data from the federal broadcast regulator.
Total broadcasting revenue dropped 3.3 per cent to $17.3 billion from 2016 to 2017, according to data released Monday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission based on corporate filings for the year ended Aug. 31, 2017.
The CRTC’s financial summaries are the latest sign of trouble for traditional media grappling with protracted competition from digital players. Consumers are increasingly streaming video and music over the internet on platforms like Netflix and Spotify, slowly eroding both the number of people flipping on live TV or tuning into radio and the advertising money those audiences attract.
Conventional television station revenue took the hardest hit, falling faster than other industries in the sector. It dropped 4.1 per cent to $1.6 billion. This marks the sixth consecutive year of revenue declines blamed on lower advertising revenue, according to the CRTC.
Television service providers saw their business shrink for the third year in a row, according to the CRTC. Overall revenue for cable, IPTV and satellite television providers fell by 2.3 per cent to $8.5 billion as the total number of subscribers dropped 1.9 per cent.
Discretionary and on-demand services dropped by 1.2 per cent, with overall declines muted by success of the Top 10 channels. The highest performers were sports channels Sportsnet, TSN and RDS.
Declines in the TV industry resulted in lower spending on Canadian programming, as stations and TV providers must dedicate a percentage of revenue to news, music and entertainment shows.
To make up for diminishing funds for made-in-Canada content, the federal government topped up the Canadian Media Fund while it considers how to get all players — including internet platforms and providers — to contribute to the system. Last month, the feds convened a panel to review the broadcasting and telecommunications acts.
The picture was brighter, however, for commercial radio stations, which reported only a 1.9 per cent dip for revenue of $1.52 billion. “The pace at which revenues are shrinking is showing signs of slowing down,” the CRTC stated for the 700 stations across Canada.
Prairie radio stations shouldered the blame for most of the declines in local and national ad revenue, with the CRTC citing “harsh economic conditions including the fragile state of the oil industry” as factors.
Growth was highest for radio stations in languages other than English and French, with the Vancouver ethnic radio market reporting a revenue increase of more than five per cent.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation posted $944 million in revenue for its conventional TV stations, a 20 per cent drop. But the fall was due to a reporting change that excluded all digital activity from its filings. CBC’s radio stations reported slight revenue growth to $295 million from $291 million the year prior.