Advanced Television

Canada: VoD continues to struggle

June 24, 2016

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has released statistical and financial information on Canadian specialty TV services (pay-TV, VoD, PPV) for the broadcast year ending August 31st 2015.

In 2015, the pace of growth for these services slowed as their total revenues increased by 0.5 per cent, or $19 million, to $4.3 billion. Revenue growth was hampered by a $19 million decline in advertising revenue, which was offset by a $30.6 million increase in subscription revenues. Expenditures continued to increase, rising from $3.1 billion in 2014 to $3.3 billion in 2015.

As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) dropped from $1 billion to approximately $884.9 million. Nevertheless, the PBIT margin remained healthy at 20.8 per cent.

Specialty services invested $1.5 billion in the creation of new television programmes produced by Canadians, reflecting an increase of 7.8 per cent compared to the $1.4 billion invested in the previous year. Of the $1.5 billion invested in Canadian-made programming, $409.9 million went to independent Canadian producers, up 9.1 per cent (or $34.1 million) from 2014.

Further report highlights:
– In 2015, there were 228 specialty, pay, pay-per-view and VoD television services operating in Canada.
– Specialty, pay, PPV and VoD services employed a total of 5,899 people in 2015.
– Bilingual and English-language services generated $3.4 billion in revenues, a decrease of 1.1 per cent (or $36.7 million) in 2015.
– French-language services produced revenues of $755.6 million, an increase of $57.8 million in 2015.
– Revenues for 38 third-language services decreased by –$2.1 million to $78.5 million.
– The 10 highest grossing services out of the 228 operating in Canada accounted for 37.7 per cent of the total revenues generated in 2015.
– For the first time, Sportsnet One and TVA Sports were among the top-10 highest grossing channels, following their acquisition of exclusive NHL programming rights.
– Pay, pay-per-view and VoD services continued to struggle, with their revenues decreasing by 6.3 per cent, or $49.7 million, between 2014 and 2015.
– Spending on foreign programming by specialty services increased from $389.2 million in 2014 to $434.2 million in 2015.

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