A few weeks back, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission released its regular Communications Monitoring Report. It’s a long list of tables and charts and graphs created from data it gathers about the industries it regulates (broadcasting and telecommunications), compiled from surveys, studies and information reported from the companies themselves.

You can read the report here (PDF), but it’s about 200 pages. I went through it looking for tidbits of interesting information, and here are some highlights that caused me to raise an eyebrow or two, presented Harper’s Index style.

Radio

• Number of new AM stations approved by the CRTC in 2008, 2009 and 2010: 1
• Number of existing AM stations approved for conversion to FM by the CRTC in those same years: 19
• Satellite radio listening hours per week for anglophones and francophones in 2007: 11
• Listening hours in 2010: Anglophones 8.4, francophones 5.6
• Rank of Canada among eight developed countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia) for radio revenue per capita: 8
• Rank of Canada for radio listening minutes per day per person: 7

Television

• Percentage of French-language television viewers who watch Canadian-made television shows: 99%
• Profit margin for conventional television in 2010: 1%
• Profit margin for specialty and pay television in 2010: 25%
• Spending on sports programming by private conventional television in 2010 (includes Vancouver Olympics): $141 million.
• Spending in the previous four years combined: $29 million
• Increase in 2010: 3,608%
• Percentage drop in spending on non-Canadian programming by private conventional television in 2010: 8.2%
• Spending on non-Canadian programming as a fraction of revenues in 2009: 42.9%
• In 2010: 36.19%
• Percentage of Canadian households using antennas to receive television signals in 2007: 8%
• In 2010: 8%
• Proportion of households worldwide receiving analog over-the-air signals: 38%
• Proportion worldwide, when including digital: 46%
• Proportion worldwide receiving over-the-air signals in 2005: 59%
• Rank of Canada among eight developed countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia) for subscription TV revenue per user: 8
• Rank of Canada for TV viewing minutes per day per person: 4
• Rank of Canada in proportion of households who pay for TV service: 1
• Price the average household pays for television service, compared to 2002 (not including bundle discounts): 143%
• Price of Internet service: 96%
• Consumer price index over the same period: 117%

Internet

• Average weekly hours spent online by anglophone Internet users: 17.1
• Average by francophone Internet users: 12.7
• Number of anglophones who have listened to a podcast in the past month: 17%
• Number of francophones: 7%
• Average download per month of a Canadian residential Internet customer, in 2010: 14.8 GB.
• Average in 2009: 12.0 GB
• Revenues from dial-up, nationwide, in 2010: $96 million. Growth in revenues from dial-up from 2009 to 2010: -31.7%
• Rank of Canada among eight developed countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia) for mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 7
• Rank for fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 2
• Rank of Canada among the same eight countries for average fixed broadband speeds in 2010: 2
• Rank for average mobile broadband speed in 2010: 3
• Rank for average revenue per mobile user in 2010: 1 (tied with Japan)

Wired telephony

• Change in telecom revenues from wireline long distance charges and calling cards between 2009 and 2010: -11%
• Change in telecom revenues from wireline long distance charges to businesses, between 2007 and 2010: -30%
• Change in number of residential phone lines using alternative providers (excluding cable companies), from 2007 to 2010: 200%
• Change for cable companies between 2006 and 2010: 248%
• Percentage of residential phone lines using incumbent providers (Bell, Telus, Rogers, etc.) in 2006: 80%
• Percentage in 2010: 65%
• Rank of Quebec among Canada’s 10 provinces for lowest use of major incumbent telephone providers in 2010: 1

Wireless

• Amount of telecom revenues from wireless in 2002: 23%
• Amount in 2010: 43%
• Percentage of Canadian households with only wireless telephone service in 2009: 10
• Best region in terms of market share for wireless providers:
• Bell (and related companies): The territories (90%)
• Rogers: Ontario (47%)
• Telus: Alberta (50%)
• Other: Manitoba (MTS Allstream): (78%)
• New entrants: Quebec (Videotron) (3%)
• Increase in total number of text messages sent in 2010 vs. 2009: 50%
• Estimated savings from switching to a new entrant in the wireless business (in this case, Wind Mobile, Primus or Mobilicity) for high-volume users (1,200 minutes, 1GB data) in Toronto and Vancouver: 49%
• Estimated savings from switching to a new entrant (in this case, Videotron) for high users in Montreal: 0%
• Savings for mobile data use in general for new entrants in Toronto and Vancouver: 24%
• Savings in Montreal: 34%
• Rank of Canada among six studied countries (U.S., U.K., France, Australia, Japan) for average price of mobile data plans, most expensive first: 3rd
• Rank of Canada among eight developed countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia) in mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 8
• Mobile advertising revenue in 2008: $12 million
• Revenue in 2009: $32 million
• Pager subscribers in 2010: 187,500
• In 2006: 504,600

Multiple services

• Percentage of subscribers to telecom services with two or more services bundled, in 2006: 15
• In 2010: 48