The television industry in Canada is not much fun these days.
There’s no question this industry has gone through a lot of change in recent years with everything from the arrival of the Internet as a distribution mechanism for video to COVID which challenged conventional viewing patterns. And it is taking a toll on the industry’s bottom line as they try to figure out how to adjust their business model to these changing conditions.
The latest figures compiled by StatsCan show conventional TV is really taking it on the chin. This sector lost money last year as it did in the previous four years. Only specialty channels were making money so many of the conventional players rely on these alternatives.
But last year was the first when even the profits derived on the specialty and pay TV sides were not enough to keep the overall industry in the black as public and non-commercial TV outlets spilled red ink for the first time in three years and private conventional TV outlets had their poorest fiscal performance in half a decade.
