CRTC reports climbing specialty channel revenues for news, sports

The CRTC released updated financial summaries Thursday for pay TV, pay-per-view, video-on-demand and specialty channel services. The new figures show that specialty sports services are faring well. Rogers Sportsnet saw increases of 16.62 per cent in its total revenue, from $186 million in 2009 to $216.9 in 2010. Following what was generally a poor year for advertising in 2009, national advertising revenue for Sportsnet increased 7.91 per cent between 2009 and 2010, from $54,741,610 to $59,071,259. Sportsnet's subscriber numbers also rose 3.69 per cent, from 8,805,343 in 2009 to 9,130,054 in 2010. The CRTC also reported an increase for Bell Media Inc.'s TSN, with total revenues growing 21.36 per cent between 2009 and 2010, from $220.5 million to $267.6 million. TSN’s national advertising revenues are up 22.92 per cent, rising from $98.5 million in 2009 to $121.1 million in 2010. The network’s subscriber numbers decreased 21.21 per cent year-over-year, however, from 11,652,124 in 2009 to 9,180,247 in 2010. The CRTC is deregulating the news and sports genres this year as a result of a 2008 broadcasting regulatory decision. Kevin Crull, president of Bell Media, said this week that the company will be seeking rate increases for the carriage price of distributing TSN. Many carriage agreements are set to expire with high-profile channels like TSN, and that, combined with the CRTC's deregulation of the sports and news genres, means those channels' carriage prices are expected rise. The CRTC also reported that CBC News Network saw an increase in its total revenue, up 8.09 per cent from 2009 to 2010, from $79.1 million to $85.5 million. CBC News Network's advertising revenue was also up by 7.35 per cent in 2010, from $14.5 million in 2009 to $15.6 in 2010. Subscriber numbers for the service showed a slight increase, up 2.28 per cent from 10,648,000 in 2009 to 10,891,175 in 2010. The CRTC also reported that total revenues increased 3.73 per cent in 2010 for CTV News Channel, to $23.9 million in 2010 from $23 million in 2009. National advertising revenues also grew by 3.73 per cent year-over-year, from $8.3 million to $9 million. CTV News Network's subscriber numbers rose 1.79 per cent between 2009 and 2010, from 8,514,814 to 8,666,846. The commission also reported increases in total revenue for Bell Media's MuchMusic channel, which rose 2.45 per cent between 2009 and 2010, from $41.2 million to $42.2 million. National advertising revenue also increased for the channel by 0.63 per cent, from $27.9 million in 2009 and $28.1 in 2010. Subscriber numbers in 2010 increased by 1.5 per cent, up to 8,369,739 from 8,245,733 the previous year. Last November, the CRTC denied an application from MuchMusic to amend its licence conditions so that it could broadcast more lifestyle programming, reduce its Canadian content requirements from 55 to 50 per cent, modify its proposed target audience, and lower the amount of music video clips it airs from 50 to 25 per cent. Among other specialty services, The Comedy Network (also owned by Bell Media) saw its total revenue grow 7.83 per cent in 2010, to $55.5 million from $51.5 the previous year. The network’s national advertising revenue showed healthy growth of 15.45 per cent, reaching $29.5 million in 2010 from $25.6 million in 2009. Subscribers for the channel increased 2.69 per cent from 6,150,497 in 2009 to 6,315,977 in 2010. news@thewirereport.ca

CRTC reports climbing specialty channel revenues for news, sports

News | 06/24/2011 8:10 pm EDT

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