This week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission issued the CRTC Communications Monitoring Report outlining the state of the communications industry—including broadcasting—in Canada.
In the news release announcing the report Jean-Pierre Blais, chairman of the CRTC, observed that “Canadians are enthusiastic consumers of creative content, whether it is offered on television, radio or through digital platforms. The fact that they are spending more time watching or listening to programming is good news for Canadian creators.”
Even with increased use of the Internet, radio and television services seem to be holding their audiences. According to the news release, “Despite the availability of content on digital platforms, Canadians spent more time watching television and listening to the radio. On a weekly basis, they watched an average of 28.5 hours of television, up from 28 hours in 2010, and listened to an average of 17.7 hours of radio, up from 17.6 hours the previous year.”
The use of Internet-delivered video also increased, going from 2.4 hours in 2010 to 2.8 per week in 2011.
The report did not show the percentage of viewers still watching TV stations off-air vs. those viewing via cable, but it did include financial data on “conventional television.”
CBC conventional television showed an 11.1 percent revenue growth in 2011, as compared to 2010, along with a 14.8 percent gain between 2009 and 2010. “Private” conventional television” did not fare quite as well, showing only 0.3 percent annual growth between 2010 and 2011 as compared with nine percent growth between 2009 and 2010.
In addition to providing information on broadcast revenue and the number of hours Canadians spent in watching different types of TV programming, this 240-page report also contains a detailed analysis of radio broadcasting programming in Canada.
