If you are a specialty, pay or public TV broadcaster, odds are you had a good year in 2006. Revenues and profits were up, sometimes way up, according to a new report from Statistics Canada. On the other hand, if you are a conventional, private broadcaster you most likely missed out on all the fun and had one of your worst years since the 1970s.

Revenues for private, conventional casters were flat at $2.2 billion in 2006, unchanged from the year before, while profits fell 62.5% to just over $90 million, the first time in 15 years that that particular segment has made less than $100 million, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The 4.1% profit margin posted by those broadcasters in ’06 was the smallest in 30 years. The 23-page report notes that, though the segment has seen flat revenue more often than not over the past five years, increased spending on programming and promotions sent profits into a tailspin.

Increased competition and a ‘downward pressure’ on advertising prices are also taking a bite out of the books. The numbers match those of a CRTC report issued in March and another from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters.

The report notes that the CRTC’s recent lifting of ad time limits on conventional TV ‘should enable broadcasters to increase their revenues, though the impact that the decision will have on the advertising market remains to be seen’

That $2.2 billion was, nonetheless, the biggest slice of revenue earned in the TV sector last year, though specialty and other channels are closing in on the conventionals. Revenue at specialties was up 11.2% to just over $2 billion, while pay-TV soared 17.7% to $482.3 million, thanks to runaway growth of pay-per-view and VOD.

The high revenue at the specialties was offset, however, by a slight dip in profit, down to $447.8 million from $449.2 million. StatsCan also notes that the cable channels are growing more slowly than in their early days.

‘Revenues grew at an average annual rate of 10.8% in the last five years, compared with 17.3% in the previous five years. This trend affected both advertising and subscription revenues,’ reads the report. ‘This loss of momentum is not surprising. Introduced over 20 years ago, specialty television is no longer a brand-new industry in an initial period of rapid growth. The industry has now reached a plateau characterized by decelerating growth.

Last year was also good to public and non-profit broadcasters, due largely to the return of NHL hockey to CBC, which helped push ad revenues up 44.2% to $351.1 million.