There is not yet a compelling economic model encouraging North American broadcasters to lessen their reliance on traditional television in favour of streaming video content over the internet.
To do so would put C$3.4 billion in traditional TV advertising revenue and C$1.7 billion in cable, satellite, telco TV provider programming fees at risk, the Convergence report said with regard to the Canadian TV industry.
Traditional network TV garners huge audiences that appeal to advertisers, while online streaming of the same content secures smaller audiences with fewer commercial minutes. Canadian broadcasters have been particularly slow to put content on the internet, as digital rights to American full-episode content is often prohibitively expensive or unavailable.
Going forward, especially as U.S. players start to generate better online viewing metrics, we expect to see more deals between the U.S. and Canada, the report predicts.
Convergence researchers conclude that North American broadcasters should attempt to grow their online advertising revenue gradually, while working to lessen any negative impact on their traditional TV revenue.
