Specialty TV services (which are coupled with pay and pay-per-view in the CRTC reports) made $4 billion for the first time last year, with specialty alone bringing in $3.3 billion of that total amount. Money to these services has been rising at a rate of 7% over the past five years, according to numbers from the CRTC.
The vast majority of that revenue came from subscribers, with $2 billion from cable subscribers and $740.2 million from satellite subscribers. The advertising share broke down to see $1.3 billion from national advertising and $29.3 million from local advertising, with $69 million from other sources.
Category growth for specialty compounded at a rate of 9.5% from 2002 to 2012 compared with conventional, which only grew by 0.6%, according to data from GroupM and the RBC Media Spotlight provided by Mediacom Canada.
Ad dollars going to the channels are also up, moving from 20% in 2002 to 36% in 2012.
Who’s watching what
A ranking of the top 10 specialty channels in Canada from December 2013 to the end of May 2014 for adults 25 to 54, averaged over 24-hour periods:
1. TSN
2. History
3. Discovery
4. Sportsnet National
5. W Network
6. HGTV Canada
7. Space
8. Showcase
9. YTV
10. Food Network Canada
The top 10 specialty channels for adults 18 to 49:
1. TSN
2. History
3. Sportsnet National
4. Discovery
5. W Network
6. YTV
7. HGTV
8. Space
9. Treehouse
10. Teletoon English
Source: Numeris Canada
