no 1 2 Communications Monitoring Report (CMR) Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) 2017 3 4 Acknowledgement The Commission wishes to thank all the entities that completed the CRTC Data Collection forms, without which this report would not have been possible. The Commission would also like to acknowledge the assistance provided by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada in the analysis of broadband deployment as well as for their coordination of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and the Spam Reporting Centre (SRC); Statistics Canada for the various supplementary data used in this report; Numeris for audience measures; NLogic for the Media Technology Monitor (MTM); OVUM; and Mediastats. The Commission would also like to acknowledge the individuals who took the time to submit a commercial electronic message that they believed to be in violation of CASL to the Spam Reporting Centre (SRC) as well as those who reported unsolicited telecommunications to the CRTC. Interested parties are welcome to provide comments for improvements or additions to future editions of the report. You can send your comments to the attention of the Secretary General, CRTC, Ottawa, K1A 0N2. 5 6 Table of Contents │CMR 2017 Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................ 31 i Key trends in the communications industry ...................................................................................... 31 ii Canadians appetite for data and high speed connections continues to grow ................................... 32 iii Canadians continue to watch TV ........................................................................................................ 32 iv Canadians supplement their content consumption online ................................................................ 33 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 35 i Purpose of the Communications Monitoring Report ......................................................................... 36 ii Scope and structure of this year’s report .......................................................................................... 36 iii Changes to the 2017 report ............................................................................................................... 37 1.1 The CRTC ................................................................................................................................ 39 i Who we are and what we do ............................................................................................................. 40 Canada’s Communication System: An Overview for Canadians ................................................. 41 i Industry landscape and competition.................................................................................................. 43 ii Communications service expenditures and prices............................................................................. 45 iii Access and service availability ........................................................................................................... 61 iv Internet data consumption ................................................................................................................ 68 v 2017 CMR Rotating Spotlight: The Wireless Code ............................................................................. 70 Local spotlight: Access for official language minority communities ........................................... 75 3.0 The Communications industry ................................................................................................. 79 i Revenues ............................................................................................................................................ 81 ii Industry characteristics ...................................................................................................................... 83 iii Financial performance ....................................................................................................................... 84 iv Consumer voices ................................................................................................................................ 89 4.0 Broadcasting sector overview .................................................................................................. 91 i Revenues ............................................................................................................................................ 93 ii Industry characteristics ...................................................................................................................... 94 iii Financial performance ....................................................................................................................... 97 4.1 Radio sector ........................................................................................................................... 99 i Revenues .......................................................................................................................................... 101 ii Financial performance ..................................................................................................................... 108 7 Table of Contents │CMR 2017 iii Availability of radio and audio services ............................................................................................ 113 iv Audience measurement ................................................................................................................... 118 v Programming contributions and expenditures ................................................................................ 123 vi Tangible benefits .............................................................................................................................. 128 vii Programming of high standards ....................................................................................................... 129 viii Ownership groups ............................................................................................................................ 132 4.2 Television sector ................................................................................................................... 133 i Revenues .......................................................................................................................................... 135 ii Internet-based video services .......................................................................................................... 146 iii Financial performance ..................................................................................................................... 149 iv Availability of television and video services ..................................................................................... 152 v Audience measurement ................................................................................................................... 156 vi Programming expenditures.............................................................................................................. 166 vii Tangible benefits .............................................................................................................................. 181 viii Programming of high standards ....................................................................................................... 182 ix Ownership groups ............................................................................................................................ 185 4.3 Broadcasting distribution sector ............................................................................................ 191 i Revenues .......................................................................................................................................... 193 ii Subscriber Data ................................................................................................................................ 194 iii Financial performance ..................................................................................................................... 196 iv Performance indicators .................................................................................................................... 197 v Price .................................................................................................................................................. 197 vi Competitive landscape ..................................................................................................................... 200 vii Consumer voices .............................................................................................................................. 201 viii Online television services ................................................................................................................. 202 ix Contribution to Canadian programming .......................................................................................... 205 x Affiliation payments ......................................................................................................................... 207 xi Broadcasting dispute resolution ...................................................................................................... 208 5.0 Telecommunications