CRTC releases results for Canadian broadcasting distributors

Thursday, March 18th, 2010
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU — The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today released the statistical and financial summaries for Canadian broadcasting distribution companies. This sector of the broadcasting industry continued its strong performance as its total revenues grew by $1.1 billion to reach $11.4 billion in 2009.

Cable

Revenue growth for cable companies slowed marginally to 11.9% last year after having increased by over 16% in both 2007 and 2008. Total revenues climbed from $8.2 billion in 2008 to $9.2 billion in 2009. Operating expenses rose by 10.6% over the same period, or from $4.6 billion to $5.1 billion.

As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) improved from $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion in one year. However, there was little change in the PBIT margin, which came in at 25.1% in 2009, compared with 25.3% in 2008.

The number of Canadian households that obtained basic-television service from a cable company grew by 2.2% to 8.1 million subscribers.

In 2009, cable companies employed 22,716 people and paid $1.6 billion in salaries, whereas the previous year they employed 19,848 people and paid $1.2 billion in salaries.

DTH and MDS

Between 2008 and 2009, total revenues for direct-to-home (DTH) satellite distribution and multipoint distribution system (MDS) companies increased by 7%, going from $2 billion to $2.2 billion. There was little change in operating expenses as they increased only slightly from $1.66 billion to $1.73 billion.

DTH and MDS companies reported a PBIT of $82 million, up from $81.4 million in 2008, and a PBIT margin of 3.7%, down from 4% the previous year.

The number of DTH and MDS subscribers to basic service was 2.3% higher, rising to 2.8 million.

In 2009, these companies employed 2, 915 people and paid $215.9 million in salaries. In comparison, they employed 2,975 people and paid $193.4 million in salaries in 2008.

Subscribers (basic):

                   2005       2006       2007       2008       2009
              ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------
Cable         6,862,644  7,484,350  7,691,326  7,916,752  8,093,483
MDS & DTH     2,488,558  2,627,662  2,630,965  2,699,510  2,760,852

More: Statistical and Financial Summaries 2005-2009