CBC ad sales continue to drop despite claim Canadians watching more TV than ever

CBC management wrote last year that viewing habits of Canadians changed drastically due to the pandemic, resulting in "greater viewing of television, especially news; growth in subscription video on demand subscribers; and an increase in digital consumption especially in accessing online news."

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The broadcaster, however, lost a whopping $22 million in profits, falling from $219.9 million to 198.7 million, in just one year.

“Revenue from television advertising decreased for both CBC and Radio-Canada by $21.2 million driven by the sustained impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on demand for Canadian TV advertising,” said the Annual Report.

The CBC's ad revenue is but a drop in the bucket compared to their main source of revenue, which comes from their annual parliamentary grant of $1.3 billion.

The loss in revenue continues a trend for the CBC, who have lost revenue since losing its licensing rights to Hocket Night In Canada broadcast. Just 7 years ago, the CBC brought in ad revenues of $425 million annually.

Former CBC executive vice-president Richard Stursberg said that losing hockey licensing lead to a huge loss in profits. “You not only lose the profits from hockey, you also lose your capacity to sell the rest of your advertising at reasonable prices,” said Stursberg.

The CBC will likely receive even more funding despite its shortcomings, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's platform for the 2021 federal election stated that it would provide hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for CBC-Radio Canada.

Under the proposal, the broadcaster would receive $400 million over four years under this proposal.

"A re-elected Liberal Government would… provide $400 million over 4 years to CBC/Radio-Canada so that it is less reliant on private advertising with a goal of eliminating advertising during news and other public affairs shows," stated the Liberal party's website.