What recession? Satellite and cable companies continued to make financial gains in 2009, according to numbers released Thursday by the CRTC.

Revenues for cablers such as Rogers, Cogeco, Shaw and Videotron rose 11.9% last year to $9.2 billion, continuing a healthy year-over-year trend. (In 2007 and 2008 the growth was 16%.)

Meanwhile, combined revenues for direct-to-home and multipoint distribution system companies including Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice climbed 7%, to $2.2 billion.

Revenues for both sectors combined amounted to $11.4 billion in 2009, and provide a stark contrast to those of private conventional broadcasters, which again were down, according to a separate report from the federal regulator.

Both sides are awaiting Monday’s CRTC decision on the controversial fee-for-carriage issue, with conventional broadcasters looking to charge the profitable cable and satellite companies to carry their signals.

The number of Canuck households that acquired cable services last year grew by 2.2% to 8.1 million subscribers, while DTH and MDS subscribers rose 2.3% to 2.8 million.

As far as contributing to Canadian programming, distribution companies doled out $352 million, an increase of 8.3% in one year. The money breaks down to about $180 million for the Canadian Television Fund, while $50 million was directed at independent funds, and $122 million went to local expression such as cable community channels.