Telecom revenue growth slowed in 2019: CRTC

While telecommunications revenues across the sector increased by two per cent in 2019, it was the slowest rate of growth in a decade, according to the CRTC’s Communications Monitoring Report, published Thursday morning by the regulator. A year previously in 2018, telecommunications revenue grew by 5.5 per cent. Despite the slower growth rate in telecommunication revenue, and including a 1.4 per cent decline in broadcasting revenue, the communications sector altogether still managed to pull in some $71 billion in revenue, a 1.1 per cent increase on the previous year. The report attributed the increase in telecommunication revenue to "ever-increasing amounts of data through both fixed Internet and mobile services." According to the report, the nationwide average monthly price of combined telecom services has fallen by an average of 6.9 per cent every year since 2016, or roughly $42 a month, down to $177 a month in 2019. From 2018 to 2019, the average unlimited home internet plan with 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speed fell from $78.71 to $69.10. At the same time, the proportion of Internet subscriptions that had 50/10 Mbps or faster increased from 49.5 per cent in 2018 to 58 per cent in 2019, and residential high-speed internet subscribers downloaded an average of 245 GB a month, a substantial increase of 26.9 per cent from 2018. The price of the average 5 GB unlimited talk and text mobile plan was more stable, decreasing from $50.89 a month in 2018 to $48.82 this year. Since 2016, the average price of such a plan has come down 14.3 per cent, from $77.47 in 2019. Earlier this year, government documents showed that the Liberal government's campaign promise of a 25 per cent drop in wireless pricing was happening organically, as prices have been falling globally in recent years. The CRTC's report said that the lowest prices across all service baskets were reported in Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec City. Basic TV service pricing was relatively steady, dropping three per cent from $25.55 in 2018 to $24.79 in 2019. Within telecommunications, the five largest telecom service providers -- BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron -- accounted for 87.3 per cent of all telecom revenue in 2019. Rural broadband availability at 50/10 Mbps speeds grew from 40.8 per cent of rural households in 2018 to 45.6 per cent of rural households in 2019, while urban households with access to 50/10 speeds climbed from 85.7 per cent in 2018 to 87.4 per cent in 2019. Meanwhile in broadcasting, Bell continued to take in the lion's share of broadcasting revenues among the major ownership groups, posting 29.6 per cent of total broadcast revenues, of $4.99 billion, followed by the Corus Entertainment Inc. with 18.8 per cent of revenue, then Rogers with 15.5 per cent, then CBC/Radio-Canada with 8.4 per cent and Quebecor with 8.3 per cent. Altogether, these top 5 broadcasters took in a total of 80.6 per cent of broadcast revenue. Over-the-top (OTT) video streaming revenues climbed some 9.2 per cent to $4.5 billion, with Netflix Inc. accounting for the largest share with $1.5 billion in revenue, a 5.6 per cent increase from 2018, and a 29 per cent increase from 2015 for the company. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Telecom revenue growth slowed in 2019: CRTC

News | December 10, 2020

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Telecom revenue growth slowed in 2019: CRTC

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