July 31, 2007
OTTAWA-GATINEAU — The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today released, for an eighth consecutive year, its Broadcasting Policy Monitoring Report. The report reveals that this industry is continuing to expand and that new media are becoming an increasingly important part of Canadians’ lives.
Radio
In 2006, Canadians were able to enjoy 1,252 different radio services, compared with 1,223 stations in 2005, including 929 English-language services, 286 French-language services, and 37 third-language services.
On average, Canadians listened to 18.6 hours of radio per week in 2006, which is a little less than in 2005, when they listened to 19.1 hours. Private commercial radio stations captured slightly more than 80% of total radio tuning; the CBC, 11.6%, satellite radio, 1%, and the Internet, 0.3%.
Revenues for private commercial stations totalled $1.4 billion in 2006, which is an increase of 5.7%, or $75.9 million, over the previous year.
In 2006, Canadian radio stations paid $23.9 million for the development of Canadian content.
Television
Canadians have access to 662 television services, including 445 English-language services, 104 French-language services, and 113 third-language services.
In 2006, Canadians watched on average 27.6 hours of television per week, slightly under the 28.1 hours in 2005.
Canadian television services captured 78.7% of total viewership in 2006.
Revenues for conventional television reached $2.6 billion in 2006, an increase over the $2.5 billion in 2005, and revenues for specialty, pay and pay-per-view television and video-on-demand services totalled $2.5 billion in 2006, compared with $2.2 billion in 2005. As for digital television services, revenues still represent only 5% of the television sector’s revenues, coming in at $248 million.
Private conventional broadcasters spent $623.7 million on Canadian programming in 2006, which was slightly higher than the $587 million spent in 2005, and expenses for pay and specialty television services totalled $890.5 million in 2006, compared with $724.7 million in 2005.
Broadcasting distribution
In 2006, 7.4 million Canadians subscribed to cable services, compared with 6.8 million in 2005, and 2.6 million Canadians subscribed to direct-to-home (DTH) satellite distribution and multipoint distribution systems (MDS), while the number of subscribers totalled 2.5 million in 2005.
The Canadian broadcasting distribution industry posted revenues of $7.7 billion in 2006.
From 2005 to 2006, subscriptions to digital services rose by 10%, from 5.3 to 5.8 million.
New media
70% of Canadian households subscribed to the Internet in 2006, which is 6% more than in 2005. The percentage of Canadian households with high speed Internet subscriptions also continued to increase, from 51% in 2005 to 60% in 2006.
22% of Canadians listened to radio over the Internet in 2006 and 6% watched television.
In 2006, 58% of Canadians used a cellphone to access the Internet, 14% an MP3 player, 9% a Webcam, 7% an iPod, 5% a personal digital assistant (PDA), and finally, 4% used a BlackBerry.
Advertising on the Internet totalled $1 billion in 2006, almost double from the $562 million in 2005.
The CRTC invites interested parties to submit their comments in order to improve future editions of this report and to include additional information. Comments may be addressed to the Secretary General, CRTC, Ottawa, K1A 0N2 or by using our On-line Services located on our website at www.crtc.gc.ca.
Starting in 2008, the Broadcasting Policy Monitoring Report and the CRTC Telecommunications Monitoring Report will be integrated into one annual report.
The CRTC
The CRTC is an independent, public authority that regulates and supervises broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada.
Reference document: Broadcasting Policy Monitoring Report (The printed version of the Report will be available as of August 10, 2007) [.htm] [.pdf]
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