Today, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission released statistical and financial summaries for Canadian specialty, pay, pay-per-view (PPV) and video-on-demand (VOD) television services. During the past five years, this sector of the broadcasting industry increased its revenues by 36.7%, while profits before interest and taxes margins hovered between 22% and 25%, reflecting a strong demand for these services.
Profitability
In 2024, these services generated revenues of $3.7 billion, representing an increase of 7.9% above the $3.5 billion earned the previous year. This is a result of a 10.9% growth in advertising revenues totaling $1.2 billion and a 7% increase in subscriber revenues that exceeded $2.4 billion. Expenses grew from $2.5 billion in 2024 to $2.7 billion in 2024.
As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) improved to $930.5 million, with a PBIT margin of 24.9%, up from $873.9 million in 2024 when the PBIT margin was 25.3%.
Sources of revenues
The total revenues of $3.7 billion were generated from the following sources:
$1.7 billion from terrestrial subscribers
$698.9 million from direct-to-home satellite subscribers
$1.2 billion from national advertising
$30.2 million from local advertising
$94.4 million from other sources
English-language and bilingual services earned $3.1 billion of the total revenues, while French-language services brought in $587.2 million.
Revenue by sectors
Specialty television services captured the largest share of the total revenues, $2.9 billion, which included:
$2.4 billion from 49 analog services, and
$479.8 million from 113 digital services
In 2024, total revenues for specialty television services were $2.7 billion for a PBIT margin of 27.8%.
Pay, pay-per-view and VOD services saw their revenues increase by 7.2%, going from $798.6 million in 2024, with a PBIT margin of 16.7%, to $855.6 million in 2024 when the PBIT margin was 16.4%.
Canadian programming
In 2024, these services spent $1.3 billion on Canadian programming, representing an 8.5% increase over the previous year. Spending on Canadian programming by specialty services included $187 million for news programs, $241 million for programs of national interests (drama series, long-form documentaries, and Canadian award shows), $397 million for sports programming, $96 million for human-interest programming, and $241 million for other types of programming.
Investments in non-Canadian programming increased slightly to $278 million in 2024 from $252 million in 2024.
Employment
In 2024, these sectors of the broadcasting industry employed 5,900 people and paid a total of $461 million in salaries. In comparison, they employed 5,495 people and paid $415 million in salaries the previous year.
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