Canadian conventional tv revenues decline 7.9% in 2009
Revenues at private conventional television stations fell 7.9%, going from $2.14 billion in 2008 to $1.97 billion, for the 2009 broadcast year according to figures published this week by the CRTC.
The federal regulator’s report provides information on the sector’s profitability, revenues and expenditures for the period of September 1, 2008, to August 31, 2009.
The CRTC reports that revenues for the 2009 product year were $1.97 billion down from $2.14 billion a year earlier. Although operating expenses were cut by 2.4%, these broadcasters lost $116.4 million before interest and taxes over the 2009 broadcast year, which resulted in a negative profit margin of 5.9%.
In 2007 and 2008, private broadcasters reported profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) of $112.9 and $8 million respectively.
The decline in revenues was directly attributable to a $190 million decline in local and national advertising sales. From 2008 to 2009, local advertising revenues decreased by 10.1% from $387.2 million to $348 million, and national advertising revenues by 10.3% from $1.47 billion to $1.32 billion.
The acquisition and production of programs represented 75.2% of all expenses, which came down from $2.1 billion in 2008 to $2 billion in 2009.
Despite the downturn, the amount of money spent by conventional broadcasters on foreign television programming continued to soar while the amount spent on Canadian programming continued to decline.
Spending on foreign programming reached its highest level yet at 59% of all programming expenses, or $846.3 million. This total represented a 9.2% increase over the $775.2 million that was spent in 2008.
The amount spent on Canadian programming last year declined 3.3% to $599.4 million from $619 million a year earlier.
Read the complete summary on the CRTC website.
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