Headline, Industry News

Canadian pay TV, PPV, VOD revs rise

MONTREAL — Revenue for Canada’s pay TV channels, pay-per-view and video-on-demand services rose to C$2.7 billion ($2.6 billion) last year, up 9.1% from the previous year’s total of $2.5 billion, in line with increases in recent years.

Paybox revenues have risen an average 9.7% each year between 2003 and 2007.

These financial results were in a report released Friday by the federal broadcast watchdog, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission.

The pay stations’ profits before interest and taxes increased to $637 million, up 13% from a year earlier.

The $2.6 billion in revenue came from $1.2 billion from cable subscribers, $566 million from satellite subscribers, $934 million from advertising, and $44 million from other sources.

Pay services generated revenue of $2.5 billion, pay-per-view services posted revenue of $117 million, and video-on-demand services rang-up revenue of $78 million.

The pay stations spent $904 million on Canadian programming, up 3.3% from $875 million a year earlier. That included $146 million for news, $207 million to other information programs, $227 million for sports programs, and $165 million for drama, $45 million for musical and variety shows, and $66 million for general interest programming.

These services also spent $323.2 million on foreign programming, up 10% on 2006.

Source: Variety