Statistics Canada’s 2007 Television Report was a bad-news story for the conventional television sector, in which revenues declined for the first time in a decade.

The report, issued Monday, shows revenues for pay and specialty television continued to rise in 2007. But public and non-commercial conventional television experienced a decline in both ad revenue and grants, according to StatsCan.

A weak advertising market hit private conventional television, which had only begun a modest recovery after stagnating the previous year. Ad revenue for this sector increased only 1.8% in 2007 — the least growth in a decade — and private conventional television’s market share continued a decline.

Pay-TV enjoyed the strongest growth in the TV sector, due largely to increasing demand for pay-per-view television and video-on-demand. Revenues from those services were up 25% in 2007 to $197.8 million. Specialty also experienced strong growth, with a revenue rise of 8%, thanks to increases in both ad revenue and subscriptions.

The StatsCan report concludes that the trend of conventional television being overtaken by pay and specialty television is continuing, with conventional TV accounting for 55% of all television broadcasting revenues in 2007, which is significantly down from a decade earlier, when its share was 79%.

From Media in Canada