Canada’s 93 conventional TV stations saw overall revenues dip in 2015 by 2.6% or $46.6 million from 2014 numbers to land at $1.76 billion last year.

Overall, private conventional TV stations were unprofitable for the third consecutive year in 2015, with profit before interest and taxes (PBIT) down to -8.0% from -7.7% in 2014.

The overall revenue loss is attributed to a 9.9% dip ($13.6 million) in “other revenues” in 2015. Other revenues included retransmission and BDU royalties, coproduction sponsorship and donations in the declining category.

Also impacting revenue was the termination of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), which resulted in an overall loss of $21.7 million in revenues in 2015 compared with 2014.

However, total expenditure by conventionals is also down, dropping by 3.9% or $72.7 million between 2011 and 2015. Overall expenditures at private conventional TV stations were $1.82 billion in 2015, a 1.6% drop from 2014.

Program expenditures took the largest hit, dropping 2.4% or $34 million, moving to $1.36 billion in 2015. Despite the drop, programming expenditure still accounted for 75.1% of total expenses at private conventional TV stations and more money was actually spent on Canadian programming in 2015.

Canadian Programming Expenditure (CPE) increased to $652.8 million, up 5.4% (or $33.5 million) from 2014. CPE as a proportion of total program expenditure was also up, increasing to 49.9% in 2015 from 46.3% in 2014.  The vast majority of CPE spend went to information programming (news and long form documentaries). Private conventional TV stations spent $406.9 million on this category, accounting for 62.3% of total CPE. Music and entertainment (drama, human interest and other) programming received $224 million in 2015, while $21 million went to sports programming. 

Private conventional TV stations spent $656.1 million on non-Canadian programming in 2015, a decrease of $60.9 million from 2014. While expenditure on non-Canadian drama programming decreased by $56.8 million in 2015, the category still accounted for one third of all programming expenses (CPE and non-Canadian combined), with spending of $432.9 million.

Private conventional TV stations’ total revenue has been falling for the past five years dropping by 17.9% or $381.9 million between 2011 and 2015.  

Overall advertising revenue numbers have dropped 17% or $309 million since 2011, but remained relatively unchanged in 2015.

On the pubcaster side, CBC/Radio-Canada reported total revenues of $1.11 billion in 2015, down 16.6%, or $220.9 million from 2014.

Advertising revenue at the CBC/Radio-Canada dropped by 53.6% in 2015, moving to $220.1 million from $474.6 million the previous year. That significant drop was due to the loss of NHL TV rights coupled with the absence of major sporting events like the Olympics and FIFA World Cup.

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