National ad revenues drop to 2009 levels for private conventional TV

Private conventional television stations' national advertising revenues fell to 2009 levels in the 2012 broadcast year, dropping 7.9 per cent and causing profits to sink, new CRTC data show. In conventional TV statistical and financial data released on the commission’s website Thursday, the CRTC said private conventional broadcasters had a total $1.35 billion in national ad revenues in the 12-month period that ended Aug. 31, 2012, down $115 million from $1.47 billion in the same period a year earlier. Pre-tax profits across the private broadcasters fell from $140.1 million in 2011 to a net loss of $31.3 million in 2012, the data show, a difference of $170.4 million. The CRTC statistics showed that overall revenue for private conventional TV stations, which rely on advertising as a revenue stream, fell nearly five per cent, from $2.14 billion in 2011 to $2.04 billion in 2012. Public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada's total advertising revenues rose 0.8 per cent in 2012 broadcast year, the CRTC data shows. Total revenues rose 2.3 per cent during the year. Total national ad sales were the lowest in three years, approaching the $1.32 billion the industry recorded in the 2009 economic recession. Local ad sales for the private broadcasters—which includes BCE Inc.-owned CTV network, and Shaw Communications Inc.-owned Global, among others—fell 0.2 per cent during the year to $354 million, the CRTC said. Michel Arpin, former CRTC vice-chair of broadcasting, said in a telephone interview that the downturn in ad sales reflects the state of the global economy. He said much of the ad dollars that flowed to conventional broadcasters previously are being redirected to other services and platforms, or simply being withheld altogether. “The national advertisers, most of them, are world enterprises, and the decisions made in New York or Chicago or London to cut costs will impact on Canada as well as Brazil or wherever they are,” he said. “Again this year, the known trend benefited the specialty services … They’re more niche, they’re addressing more directly the needs of the advertisers. They’re targeting the demographic that the advertiser wants more than the over-the-air television, which is all things for all people," he said. The CRTC said in April that revenues for specialty, pay-per-view and video-on-demand services rose 35 per cent in the past five years, which included a 2.4 per cent increase in national advertising revenues last year. Arpin said that shift is part of a long-term trend, though conventional broadcasters could return some of their lost revenues. “It’s not the first time ever that the broadcasting industry is back a couple of years, and then they recoup,” he said, noting that first quarter advertising numbers for this year are still down. —With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and copy editing by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

National ad revenues drop to 2009 levels for private conventional TV

News | 06/13/2013 9:05 pm EDT

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