CRTC Reports Shows Increased Canadian Spend on Imported Content

OTTAWA/GATINEAU: According to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canadian specialty, pay and on-demand services spent 36.7-percent more on imported content in the year ended August 31, 2009, as compared with the prior-year period.

For specialty, pay- and pay-per-view TV services, as well as VOD services, C$1.08 billion was spent in 2009 on Canadian programming, which was on par with the prior year. Of the overall programming spend, C$357.1 million went to independent Canadian producers. Spending on local programming included C$163.1 million for news programs, C$226.8 million for other information programs, C$302.6 million for sports programming, C$194.7 million for drama, C$47.5 million for musical and variety shows and C$73.7 million for general-interest programming. In the period, broadcasters spent C$521.8 million on content from outside of Canada, a 36.7-percent increase from the C$381.6 million reported in 2008.

CRTC reports that the sector delivered revenues of C$3.1 billion—a 6-percent gain—including C$1.4 billion from cable-TV subscribers (up 12.9 percent) and C$624.1 million from DTH satellite subs (up 3.6 percent). National advertising accounted for C$982.2 million (down 2.4 percent), local advertising took in C$18.2 million (down 11.1 percent) and an additional C$53.1 million came from other sources. Profit before interest and taxes rose to C$728.7 million.

Specialty TV services captured the largest share of the total revenues, C$2.4 billion, which included C$2.08 billion from 49 analogue services, with the remainder from 95 digital services. Pay, pay-per-view and VOD services saw revenues increase by 16.6 percent, up from 2008’s C$596.4 million to C$695.6 million in 2009.