OTTAWA-GATINEAU — Ad revenue continued to grow in 2008 for specialty TV, while over-the-air networks were being hit by dwindling commercials.

According to statistics released recently by the CRTC, strong ad figures combined with higher subscriber revenues last year led the specialty sector to a profit (before interest and taxes) of $549.6 million, up from $531.1 million.

Local and national advertising rose to a combined $1.02 billion for the broadcast year ended Aug. 31, 2008, up from $948.4 million, with national advertising making the greatest gains.

The majority of the ad revenue flowed to the lucrative analog channels, such as TSN, YTV and Teletoon.

The ad revenues were topped by subscriber revenues, however, which totaled $1.27 billion. Subscribers were also on the upswing in ’08, up 5.3% to $878.9 million in cable, and 5.7% to $387.8 million in satellite.

Among conventional broadcasters, national advertising sales declined from $1.5 billion to $1.4 billion in 2008, contributing to a 90% drop in profits. These numbers do not reflect the full force of the ad slump, however, which gained steam in the fall.

Only the pay-TV, pay-per-view and video-on-demand sector suffered from a drop in national advertisers, with dollars falling to zero from $107,000. However, local advertising rose to $438,000 from $102,000. Subscriber revenues were stable, with $380.7 million coming from cable subscribers and $208.7 million from satellite.

Specialty and pay-TV made a combined $2.9 billion in ’08, up 7.6%. PBIT rose 5.9% to $686.1 million.

Expenses were up — but just slightly — to $2.2 billion from $2 billion, and spending on Canadian programming topped the $1-billion mark for the first time, up 11.3% to $1.1 billion. The spending on Cancon included $146.6 million for news, $235.4 million for other information programming, $270.3 million for sports, $202.1 million for drama, $55 million for musical and variety shows, and $72 million for general-interest programming.

Spending on foreign programs was up 9.1% to $361.1 million.