Although profitability flatlined and operating margins slipped, Canada’s 29 specialty and pay services managed to corner a $141.5 million piece of the national advertising pie in fiscal ’96, a 27.7% increase over $110.8 million in 1995.

According to crtc financial statistics for the year ending Aug. 31, 1996, operating income for 21 specialties and eight pay-per-view services sits at $107.8 million over 1995’s $105.5 million, on total revenues of $664.5 million, up 15.3% over fiscal 1995’s $576.4 million.

Profit before income tax held at $98.2 million compared to $98.4 million in the previous year. The operating margin sits at 16.2%, down from 18.3%.

Reflected in the stats are the 10 newest English-language and French-language specialties reporting for a full 12 months, as compared to eight for fiscal ’95.

The specialty and pay services spent a cumulative $258.2 million on Canadian programming, a 8.7% increase over last year’s $237.6 million tally. Of that $258.2 million, $105.8 million was spent on rights acquisition, a marginal 1.4% increase over the previous year. Script and concept development is up minimally at $3.4 million over 1995’s $3.2 million.

While sales and promotions budget numbers reflected a larger increase to $67.2 million versus $60.1 million in fiscal ’95, the bigger breakaway number is reflected in the total expenditure on Canadian production.

Including filler programming, the pay and specialty services spent $140.3 million on original production, up 25.9% over fiscal 1995’s $111.4 million. First-year Canadian programming expenditures for the ’94 licensees — a flat fee as per their licence conditions, versus a percentage of revenue as per the remainder of their licence terms – are reflected in both the 1996 production expenditures and in the absence of profitability for four of the six English-language specialties.

The good news for the tier one and two specialties is the increase to the national advertising sales bottom line.

The tier one English-language specialties – tsn, Newsworld, ytv, MuchMusic and Vision tv – garnered $91.5 million in national ad revenue, up $8.8 million from fiscal 1995’s $82.7 million tally.

tsn, capitalizing on sports revenue lost to the private broadcasters after baseball and hockey kerfuffles, records the biggest uptake of the tier one five, a 15.6% increase to the national baseline figure at $41.3 million for fiscal ’96 from $35.7 million in 1995.

ytv is in with the second biggest national ad revenue increase, up to $23.5 million from $20.8 million last year. CBC Newsworld is up marginally to $10.9 million from $9.9 million. MuchMusic and Vision are both down slightly to $15.4 million and $531,551 respectively from $15.7 million and $640,434 in ’95.

The tier two batch – Discovery Channel, wtn, Life Network, Showcase, Bravo! and CMT Canada – registered a cumulative $23.9 million, a substantial increase of $16.2 million over the $7.7 million on record for the previous eight-month year.

All except wtn have tripled their portion of the national ad pie. Discovery is in for $7.2 million from $2.7 million. Life accrued $5.2 million, up from $1.8 million. cmt is up to $3.9 million from $856,976; Showcase at $3.7 million from $1.2 million; and Bravo! at a healthy $1.3 million from $333,534. wtn, on basic cable, is running $2.1 million in national ad monies, up from $769,653 in the first eight months of fiscal ’95.

For the tier two group, the marked increase in advertising weighed light on profitability. The ’96 balance sheet’s increased programming expenses played out on the bottom line, leaving Discovery, Showcase, and cmt in the red again this year. Life, which was above the line last year, joins the group. Bravo!, which was carrying a $950,783 deficit in 1995, recorded a $1.8 million profit. wtn’s profit level increased to $2.2 million this year over the $2.1 million in ’95.