IPTV grew, but households with TV subscriptions fell in 2014: CRTC

The CRTC said in the final installment of its communications monitoring report Thursday that the percentage of households subscribing to TV services fell to 82 per cent in 2014 from 83.7 per cent a year earlier. That makes for the lowest percentage in the past five years, given that the household subscription rate for broadcast-distribution services was 84.2 per cent in 2012, 83.5 per cent in 2011 and 84.5 per cent in 2010, according to the report. The proportion of TV-service subscribers with cable was 60.5 per cent in 2014, the CRTC said, down from 63.2 per cent in 2013 and as high as 68.4 per cent in 2010. Satellite subscribers represented 22 per cent of the TV-subscriber market last year, down from 22.9 per cent in 2013 and 24.8 per cent in 2010. IPTV subscribers amounted to 15.3 per cent of TV-service customers, rising from 11.7 per cent in 2013 and from just 3.6 per cent in 2010. Cable revenues were down 3.2 per cent to $5.2 billion last year, while satellite revenues were down 2.4 per cent to $2.4 billion and IPTV revenues rose 38.9 per cent to $1.3 billion. That followed growth in IPTV revenue of 57.9 per cent in 2013 and 81.6 per cent in 2012. Cable and satellite services saw revenue declines of 1.6 and 0.8 per cent, respectively, in 2013, and 2.2 and 1.6 per cent in 2012, the commission said. Overall, broadcast distribution revenues were up 1.4 per cent to $9.05 billion, the CRTC said in the communications monitoring report. The CRTC reported last week that broadcasting revenues, overall, were up 1.4 per cent to $17.3 billion. The CRTC said that both the “radio and conventional television market sectors have seen revenue drops and have experienced weaker profitability growth this year.” Radio broadcasters had $1.6 billion in revenues in 2014, a 0.5 per cent drop from the previous year. AM stations were down 1.3 per cent to $290.9 million, while their FM counterparts were down 0.5 per cent to $1.3 billion. Private conventional broadcaster revenues were down 7.2 per cent last year to $1.8 billion. CBC/Radio Canada revenues, not including Parliamentary appropriations, were up 29.7 per cent to $601 million in 2014, a year in which CBC broadcast international events such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. Advertising revenues for CBC’s TV stations, specifically, were up 43.5 per cent to $475 million. For private conventional stations, advertising revenues were down 7.6 per cent to $1.6 billion. Revenues for discretionary services, which includes specialty channels, pay-per-view and video-on-demand, were up 3.1 per cent to $4.2 billion, CRTC said. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

IPTV grew, but households with TV subscriptions fell in 2014: CRTC

Broadcast | October 29, 2015

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IPTV grew, but households with TV subscriptions fell in 2014: CRTC

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