Digital media leads the way in CRTC broadcast survey

Digital media saw an increase in revenues last year while conventional broadcasters experienced decreases, a new report from the CRTC has found. The results of the annual highlights of the broadcasting sector study were issued by the commission Friday. Commercial conventional television saw revenues fall by 7.16 per cent while discretionary TV declined 6.31 per cent in the 2023 broadcast year. Broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) fell 5.37 per cent and commercial radio experienced a decrease of 0.55 per cent. Digital media broadcast undertakings (DMBU) saw an uptick of 14.08 per cent in revenue, showing that Canadians have been increasing their adoption of DMBUs such as Canadian and foreign streaming services. In 2023, 26 per cent of anglophones and 15 per cent of francophones 18 and older watched content exclusively online. Most of the commercial TV sector revenue for last year was reported by BDUs (35.2 per cent), DMBUs (25.9 per cent) and discretionary television (19.4 per cent). National advertising made up 72.2 per cent of the revenue generated by conventional TV. For discretionary channels, 66.9 per cent of revenues came from subscription sales, with 31.2 per cent arising from advertising. For radio, English stations made up 77.9 per cent of the total commercial radio revenue share in 2023. French content made up 17.9 per cent, while ethnic stations accounted for 4.1 per cent of the total. Two thirds of the commercial radio revenue was local advertising. National advertising accounts for 29.5 per cent of the total. Contributions to Canadian content jumped by 0.7 per cent from 2022 to 2023. Radio led the increase, with a 28.1 per cent hike. TV contributions only increased by one per cent. Spending on news by conventional and discretionary stations fell by $50.4 million or 6.31 per cent. Data in the report say that from 2013 to 2020, Canadians consumed more online news, but the findings from 2020 to 2023 suggest that growth has hit a plateau. People aged 18 to 49 consume the most news online, while seniors read online content the least. The survey also looked at official language minority communities. In Quebec, the average yearly expenditure for English productions was $22.3 million. Outside the province, French language programming was $7.83 million. There were 13 francophone radio stations outside Quebec in 2023, generating $13.8 million in revenue with $12.1 million in expenses. In Quebec, there are 10 English and bilingual radio stations with revenues of $25.5 million versus expenditures of $18.9 million. - Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca

Digital media leads the way in CRTC broadcast survey

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By Paul Park
| August 30, 2024

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Digital media leads the way in CRTC broadcast survey

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By Paul Park
| August 30, 2024