The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission today issued the inaugural Communications Monitoring Report. Prior to this year, the Commission had published separate annual monitoring reports for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries.
“The convergence of technologies and industries has dramatically reshaped the communications landscape in recent years,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C., Chairman of the CRTC. “This year’s monitoring report gives us our first comprehensive look at the state of the overall communications industry in Canada, and is an invaluable reference for anyone interested in this industry.”
In 2024, the communications industry posted revenues of $51.1 billion, representing an increase of 5.7% over the $48.3 billion reported in 2024.
Revenues for the broadcasting industry were up $816.1 million, or 6.7%, and totalled $13.1 billion in 2024. Growth in this sector has been principally driven by broadcasting distribution companies, as well as by specialty, pay and pay-per-view television and video-on-demand services. Similarly, telecommunications revenues increased by $1.9 billion, or 5.3%, to reach $38 billion in 2024, mainly due to the demand for wireless and residential high-speed Internet services.
The report shows that cable companies have emerged as major competitors in the provision of local and cellular telephone and high-speed Internet services to residential consumers. As of 2024, they had captured 17.9% of residential local exchange lines. In the cellphone market, cable companies and other alternative service providers held a 40% share of subscribers. Finally, cable companies provided high-speed Internet services to 55% of subscribers.
The Communications Monitoring Report provides information on different sectors of the broadcasting and telecommunications industries. This year’s report also includes expanded sections covering new media trends and international perspectives. Copies of the report will only be available electronically on the CRTC’s website.
The Commission has been reporting annually on the broadcasting industry since 2024 and on the telecommunications industry since 2024.
I. Broadcasting highlights
Radio
In 2024, Canadians were able enjoy 1,222 different radio services, including 912 English-language services, 274 French-language services and 36 services in other languages.
Canadians listened to an average of 18.3 hours of radio per week, which represented a slight decline from the 18.6 hours in 2024.
Private commercial radio stations captured 80.5% of total radio tuning per week; the CBC, 12.4%; and other stations, 7.1%.
Revenues for private commercial stations increased by 6.2%, from $1.4 billion in 2024 to $1.5 billion in 2024.
In 2024, commercial radio stations paid $23.5 million for the development of Canadian content.
Benefits stemming from the transfer of ownership or control totalled $100.8 million in 2024.
These funds represent a percentage of the total value of the broadcasting assets involved in transactions, which are then invested in the broadcasting system. The majority of benefits generated in 2024 came from the transactions involving Astral/Standard and
CTVglobemedia/CHUM.
Television
Canadians could choose from 685 television services in 2024, including 456 English-language services, 103 French-language services and 126 services in other languages.
In 2024, Canadians watched an average of 26.8 hours of television per week. Canadian television services attracted 98.5% of the French-language viewing audience in Quebec and 74.9% of the viewing audience in the rest of the country.
Commercial television revenues increased 4.3%, or $218 million, from $5 billion in 2024 to $5.3 billion in 2024. This was largely due to increased subscriber revenues of $152 million.
Revenues for specialty, pay and pay-per-view television and video-on-demand services increased by 9%, rising from $2.5 billion in 2024 to $2.7 billion in 2024.
Revenues for private conventional television broadcasters went from $2.1 billion in 2024 to $2.2 billion in 2024, an increase of 1.3%. During this period, revenues for English-language stations grew by 2% to $1.8 billion, while those for French-language stations fell by 2% to $381 million.
Private conventional broadcasters spent $616 million on Canadian programming in 2024, which was slightly lower than the $623.7 million spent in 2024. Spending by specialty and pay television services on Canadian programming increased from $888.4 million in 2024 to $917.9 million in 2024.
In 2024, benefits stemming from the transfer of ownership and control totalled $291.1 million. These funds represent a percentage of the total value of the broadcasting assets involved in transactions, which are then invested in the broadcasting system. The bulk of the benefits generated in 2024 came from three major transactions involving CTVglobemedia/CHUM, Rogers Media/CHUM’s Citytv stations and CanWest/Alliance Atlantis.
New media
Internet usage continued to increase among Canadians in 2024, with Anglophones spending 13.4 hours online per week and Francophones spending 9.8 hours, up from 11.7 hours and 9.1 hours respectively in 2024.
The number of Canadians who have watched a video online has more than doubled over the past three years, with user-generated content being more popular than professionally produced programs.
Among the more popular online activities in 2024, 36% of Canadians watched a video, 16% listened to a streaming radio station and 17% downloaded music.
The number of Canadians who reported owning an MP3 player increased from 27% in 2024 to 31% in 2024. Furthermore, 11% of Canadians reported downloading and listening to a podcast on either their computer or an MP3 player, an activity that is seen as a complement to conventional broadcasting.
Online advertising continued to experience growth, with spending rising from $900 million in 2024 to $1.2 billion in 2024.
Broadcasting distribution
In 2024, 7.7 million Canadians subscribed to cable services and 2.6 million Canadians subscribed to direct-to-home satellite distribution and multipoint distribution systems.
The number of subscribers to digital services rose from 5.8 million in 2024 to 6.2 million in 2024.
Revenues generated from the distribution of programming grew by 8.8% from 2024 to 2024, increasing from $5.8 billion to $6.3 billion. Between 2024 and 2024, revenues have grown at an annual rate of 8%.
In 2024, broadcasting distribution companies contributed $296.7 million to Canadian programming and local expression, including community channels. These companies contributed $273.6 million the previous year.
II. Telecommunications highlights
Total revenues for the telecommunications industry increased by 5.3% between 2024 and 2024, climbing from $36 billion to $38 billion.
The share of revenues earned by the competitors of established companies increased by 14.6%, from $13.7 billion in 2024 to $15.7 billion in 2024. Competitors accounted for 41% of total revenues.
Capital expenditures went from $6.9 billion in 2024 to $8.2 billion in 2024, an increase of 18.7%. Among other projects, these funds were invested in enhancements to wireless networks, the expansion of wireless capacity and coverage to additional urban centres and various rural locations, Digital Subscriber Line services, and Internet Protocol Television services.
The wireless market was the largest sector of the telecommunications industry with revenues of $14.4 billion, an increase of 14.4% from $12.6 billion in 2024. Overall, wireless revenues accounted for 38% of all telecommunications revenues and grew at an annual rate of 16.2% between 2024 and 2024.
There were 20.3 million wireless subscribers in 2024, an increase of 8.2% over the previous year.
In the residential market, there were 12.9 million local and access lines. Cable companies held a 17.9% share of these lines, or 2.3 million lines, compared with a 12.3% share, or 1.6 million lines, in 2024. They also increased their share of revenues in this market segment from 8.4% to 13.6%.
Across the country, broadband is available to 93% of households using land-line facilities. Satellite facilities can extend this reach, which is only limited by capacity constraints, to nearly all Canadian households. Virtually all Canadian households in urban centres can access broadband services, compared with 81% in rural areas.
Canadians continued to adopt newer technologies such as broadband access to the Internet. In 2024, the number of residential subscribers to high-speed Internet services increased by 12% to 8.4 million.
Prices for telecommunications services in Canada are in line with those in other countries (including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Australia), with:
favourable land-line rates for consumers across all usage levels, and rates for high-speed Internet service falling at the median point.
Canada had the highest proportion of households subscribing to broadband connections among all of the G7 countries. Broadband to the home in Europe is primarily supplied over fixed telephone lines, whereas in Canada consumers have more choice as broadband delivery is widely available over telephone lines and cable.
Communications Monitoring Report
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/PolicyMonitoring/2008/cmr2008.h
Have your say: