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Canuck media to grow faster than U.S. market

BANFF, ALBERTA — Canada’s entertainment and media market is to expand faster than the U.S. market to the south from 2010 to 2014, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said in its latest global industry outlook.

“As Canada’s economy is recovering ahead of the U.S. economy, we expect that the Canadian advertising market will rebound more quickly,” Michael Paterson, Canadian co-editor of the Global Entertainment and Media Outlook at PwC, said Tuesday.

“Increased demand and opportunities for Internet and mobile advertising along with sustained spending on traditional advertising platforms will drive growth,” he added.

The Canadian market fell in value by 2.7% in 2009, yet the PwC report forecast 5% compounded growth annually through 2014 as the domestic entertainment and media industry rebounds.

Broken out, the Canadian Internet access market will see spending rise 12% year-on-year to 2014, against 8% growth in the U.S. market.

And Canadian TV subscriptions will grow 6.8% annually, on average, against 6.5% in the U.S. market.

Likewise, Canadian consumer spending on video games will grow by 6.6%, just ahead of 6.4% in the American market to the south.

PwC researchers also expect the Canadian advertising market to continue recovering, validating recent TV acquisitions like Shaw Communications paying $2 billion for Canwest Global Communications Corp.’s TV assets.

The PwC report sees Canadian TV advertising securing average annual growth of 3.8% to $3.4 billion in 2014.

“The demise of the conventional television advertising market appears to have been exaggerated with $2.1 billion of expected advertising revenue in 2014,” the report said.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter