Consolidation and moving stations to the FM band are helping the private radio industry cope with the competition posed by the Internet, according to a report released Monday, although profit margins decreased slightly.
Private radio broadcasters' advertising revenue increased six percentage points to $1.5 billion in 2007, said Statistics Canada, adding that the growth outpaces the advertising market as a whole for the third time in five years.
For FM bands in particular, revenue increased 7.1 percentage points to $1.2 billion – bettering their AM counterparts' growth by five percentage points.
Still, metropolitan areas saw profit margins as a percentage of revenues decrease by a slight amount, from 20 per cent down to 19.8 per cent.
The decrease was most marked in large urban areas such as Ottawa and Montreal, where the margin fell more than a percentage point to 25.7 per cent.
The statistics were collected as part of the Annual Radio and Television survey, used in part to monitor the industry's performance and adherence to regulations.
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