10 Canadian television broadcasting

The Canadian television broadcasting industry consists of different sub-segments:

  • The private conventional television sub-segment, which includes private broadcasters that maintain over-the-air infrastructure to broadcast to households.[23]
  • Services in the discretionary and on-demand sub-segment are those that are only available via cable television, direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television or Internet protocol television (IPTV) providers. Discretionary services typically provide sports, news, movies, arts or thematic programming, and earn revenue from a combination of subscription fees and advertising. On-demand services include video-on-demand (VOD) services that earn revenue from subscription or transactional payments, rather than advertising.
  • Public broadcasting, operating in either or both of the sub-segments above, include CBC/Radio-Canada, as well as the provincial educational broadcasters operating in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) collects and publishes financial information reported by Canadian broadcasters operating in these sub-segments, both on an individual service as well as aggregated basis for designated large broadcast groups. Key information provided by the CRTC focuses on broadcasting revenues and contributions to the development and production of Canadian programming.

Canadian Programming Expenditures (CPE) refer to broadcaster spending on Canadian content and includes spending in categories such as news, sports, dramas, documentaries, reality and lifestyle/factual. Programs of National Interest (PNI) is a sub-group of CPE. It is a more specific requirement, focused on contributions to identified categories of programming (e.g., dramas, comedies, documentaries and film). For many large broadcast groups (e.g., Bell Media, Corus and TVA), a minimum amount of PNI expenditures must be spent on independently produced Canadian programs.

For Canadian private broadcasters, these contributions are calculated on the basis of prior year revenues. For CBC/Radio-Canada, they are instead calculated on the basis of total programming expenses in the current year.

Financial information is reported for the September to August broadcast year. At this point, the CRTC has only released the aggregated financial information reported by the large broadcast groups. It is current to the most recently completed broadcast year (2024/25). However, financial information for the total broadcasting industry has not yet been released. As such, that information is not as current as the aggregated broadcasting group data, and is limited to the 2023/24 broadcast year. That said, the large broadcaster groups make up more than 85% of industry totals. As such, current data for the large groups reflects the results and trends for the industry as a whole.

The information reported to the CRTC and outlined below is limited to linear television broadcasting. It does not include details about the revenues and CPE contributions from online services and/or online broadcasting activities, both from Canadian and foreign online services.

The CRTC is in the process of modernizing its regulatory framework. A key purpose of that review relates to the inclusion of online services as being part of the Canadian broadcasting system. In so doing, these services will also provide the CRTC with detailed financial information about their revenues and contributions to Canadian programming. As a result, in the coming years ahead, that information may also be published by the CRTC, and will likely form the basis of additional elements being reported and discussed in this chapter of the Profile report. In the interim, the CRTC has collected limited revenue information from online services and published industry-wide numbers, on an aggregated basis.

Highlights from 2023/24 for Broadcasting Industry Totals and from 2024/25 for Large Broadcaster Ownership Groups

  • Broadcasting industry revenue declined by 2.2%, falling from $6.4 billion to $6.3 billion.
  • Revenue decreases are more pronounced for large broadcast ownership groups, given they are limited to conventional, discretionary and on-demand services, and exclude all-sports services, who revenues have continued to trend upwards.
  • For large English-language groups, revenues decreased by 10.7% in 2024/25. That decrease was 9.9% for private broadcaster groups (i.e., excluding the CBC).
  • The same negative trend holds true for large French-language groups, with a decrease of 6.5% for all groups, and 7.0% for private groups (i.e., excluding Radio-Canada).
  • CPE spending by the English-language private broadcaster groups decreased by 5.0% in 2024/25.
  • Results were similar for large French-language groups, as CPE spending decreased by 12.3%.
  • The broadcasting industry continues to face multi-year declines in both revenues and CPE spending across English and French language private broadcaster groups.

10.1 Revenues and Canadian programming expenditures (CPE)

Television broadcasting and audiences

Lower revenue in almost every segment of Canada’s broadcasting industry during the 2024 broadcasting year (September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2024) led to an overall decline in revenue, by 2.2% to $6.29 billion. In 2024, total industry revenues experienced the lowest level in the last five years, with revenues also having fallen by $478 million over the last two broadcast years.

Looking specifically at the discretionary services segment, overall revenues in 2023 decreased below $2 billion for the first time in five years, and continued that trend falling to $1.81 billion in 2024 (Exhibit 10-1).

Exhibit 10-1 Total revenues and CPE in the broadcasting industry, by service segment

Source:
CMPA estimates based on data from the CRTC's 2024 Statistical and Financial Summaries.

Note:
Some totals may not sum due to rounding.
* Includes the following discretionary services: CTV News Channel, CBC News Network, LCN, ICI RDI, TSN, Sportsnet, Sportsnet One, RDS, TVA Sports, ESPN Classic.
** Includes revenue earned by discretionary services owned by CBC/Radio-Canada, other than National News services (i.e., CBC News Network and ICI RDI).

The data outlined below focuses on the large English- and French-language ownership groups. Current CPE requirements for large English-language private television ownership groups are set at 30% and include Bell Media Inc. (BCE), Corus Entertainment Inc. (Corus), and Rogers Media Inc. French-language private television ownership groups range from 26% to 45% and include Bell Media Inc. (BCE), Corus Entertainment Inc. (Corus), and Quebecor Media Inc (Quebecor).[24]

Exhibit 10-2 Total revenues and CPE by English-language broadcasting groups

Source:
CRTC, data from the 2025 Aggregate Annual Returns filed by the Broadcasting Groups.

Note:
Some totals may not sum due to rounding.
English-language private broadcasting groups include: Bell, Rogers and Corus, designated groups.

Exhibit 10-3 Total revenues and CPE by French-language broadcasting groups

Source:
CRTC, data from the 2025 Aggregate Annual Returns filed by the Broadcasting Groups.

Note:
Some totals may not sum due to rounding.
French-language private ownership groups include: Bell, Quebecor and Corus, designated groups.

[23]The vast majority of Canadian households now receive conventional television signals via cable television, DTH satellite television or IPTV providers.
[24]CRTC (2024). Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2024-288.