The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Decima Reports.

CBC president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch spoke about the challenges of audience fragmentation during an address he gave at the North American Broadcasters Association conference in Toronto on May 16.

Richard Hardacre has been elected as national president of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). He was president of ACTRA Toronto for two terms and was on ACTRA’s national council for 10 years. The ongoing national president is Thor Bishopric.

Operating revenues for conventional TV slowing down
Revenues for TV broadcasting in Canada rose 4.1% to $5.4 billion in 2004, with the rate of growth slowing from previous years, according to statistics released June 2 by Statistics Canada. Despite the slower growth in revenue, the profitability of private broadcasters increased to a profit margin (before interest and taxes) of 15.6% in 2004 from 14.7% in 2003. The slower growth in 2004 was felt most in the conventional TV sector, where revenues edged up 0.9% to $2.1 billion, according to StatsCan. "The competition within and across media for advertising dollars was felt most in this segment of the industry," notes the report. In contrast, revenues in the pay and specialty TV segment grew 9% to surpass $2 billion for the first time, primarily due to more advertising. Air time sales on specialty TV jumped 16.7% to $707.2 million. Specialty television’s share of the overall TV broadcast pie increased to 23.8% in 2004 from 21.4% in 2003. Subscriber revenues for the sector increased by 5.9%. The profit margin of specialty TV improved to 19.7% in 2004 from 12.6% in 2003, while the profit margin of the over-the-sector declined to 11% from 14.3%.