The CRTC has issued its annual Communications Monitoring Report – its missive on the state of the communications industry – and, as expected, it’s a mixed bag.

According to the report, which is based on 2009 data, the communications industry accounted for 4.6% of Canada’s GDP, with overall revenues up 2.1% to $55.4 billion.

That might be an impressive number, but the news was more mixed for broadcasters where the rubber meets the road. Revenues for broadcast grew 3% to $14.4 billion, with specialty, pay and VOD leading the way. Those categories demonstrated a 5.8% growth to $3.1 billion.

However, those gains were offset by ground ceded in other areas. Overall revenues for commercial casters were flat year-over-year, remaining steady at $5.47 billion.

Private conventional rang up $1.97 billion in revenues in 2009, down 7.8% from $2.14 billion the previous year. The CBC experienced a slightly less drastic drop, with income down 5% from 2008 to $392 million in advertising and other commercial revenues.

Revenues generated from the distribution of television programming jumped from $6.9 billion in 2008 to $7.5 billion in 2009, an increase of 7.4%.

Spending on Cancon by broadcasters remained relatively unchanged annually, with private conventional investing $599.4 million ($20.2 million less than the previous year) and specialty and pay ringing up $1 billion in spending, unchanged from the previous year.

In 2009, 8.5 million households subscribed to cable or IPTV, while an additional 2.8 million households subscribed to satellite services. Subscribers to digital services grew to 7.6 million in 2009, up 11.9% from the year before.

Canadians watched an average of 26.5 hours of television per week, which was slightly below the 2008 average of 26.6 hours.

For the full report, visit www.crtc.gc.ca.