Canadian Media Means Business (CMMB) includes Adapt Media, Bell Media, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), Cogeco, Friends of Canadian Media, Glacier Media Group, La Presse, Pattison Media, ThinkTV and Village Media.

Hailed as the first study of its kind quantifying the sector’s economic impact, based on research led by Nordicity, its scope encompassed the media and advertising sector (defined as all types of media platforms that connect consumers and the public with news, information, and advertising), including online media, television, audio, and out-of-home media as well as the newspaper, magazine, and directory publishing industry.

The report finds that the industry supports nearly 170,000 jobs, contributing an estimated $21 billion to Canada’s GDP. It states that every $1 million invested in Canadian advertising, generates 8.2 jobs, $630,000 in salaries, and adds $1 million to the GDP.

Despite its impact, the report emphasizes that the sector is under increasing pressure, losing an estimated $7.5 billion in advertising revenue to foreign digital platforms between 2017 and 2022. CMMB says 92% of digital ad dollars currently flow to non-Canadian platforms, putting the sustainability of Canadian media in jeopardy.

“Over the past decade, I have witnessed the alarming loss of jobs in media, the degradation of information integrity, the rise of misinformation, and the increasing inability for Canadians to see themselves in stories and know whom to trust,” writes Sarah Thompson, Executive Managing Director, Glassroom, and Project Lead for CMMB. “The loss is felt in every community across our country, both in our connection to one another and in our democracy. This is not a situation we can afford to ignore. This topic has been extensively studied by many in our own country and around the world. This isn’t what this report is about, nor was it the focus of the analysis. This report is about following the money. I have spent the last decade of my career in media. And I have watched dollars leave the Canadian market rapidly, creating erosion across our economy, as colleagues in media, advertising, and marketing lose their jobs and media environments degrade for our advertisers. This raised a critical question: What is the total contribution of all media and advertising to Canada’s gross domestic product? However, the economics of the local media ecosystem in a country have not been studied in Canada or around the world.”

Thompson says the report isn’t about evaluating the estimated $26 billion invested in advertising in Canada, it’s about the jobs connected to those dollars staying in the market.

“What this report won’t tell you is what could have been: what the Canadian media economy might have looked like if those advertising dollars had stayed in the market,” said Thompson. “The post-COVID shift that led to more dollars being invested in platforms has not been reversed. And so, as ad dollars left Canada, they have never come back.”

“This is a call to action for everyone in business, advertising, media, and government to understand how the ripple effect of Canadian media and advertising dollars drives our country and across multiple connected industries – and the power of collective action in this endeavour,” she continued. “This report also informs us of what the economic value of Canadian media was, not what it could be or is today. What is clear is that investing in Canadian media is beneficial for businesses and our country because it is closely connected to our economic future.”

Additional findings include that the media sector’s total economic impact was $22.6 billion in 2023, including “direct, indirect, induced, and spillover impacts.” Relying on data from Statistics Canada, Nordicity estimates that the sector directly provided 138,000 jobs in 2023. Among these jobs, advertising, public relations, and related services contributed over 40% of the total at 56,700 jobs. Radio and television broadcasting, together with discretionary television, remain significant employers, contributing almost 20% of the total, or 24,500 jobs. Newspaper, periodical, and directory publishing (excluding book publishing) supported an estimated 19,400 jobs.

According to Statistics Canada data cited in the report, traditional media platforms lost over 11,000 jobs between 2019 and 2024. Newspaper employment experienced the most significant job losses, shedding nearly 7,693 jobs between 2019-24 – just over 30% of its 2019 workforce. Radio and television broadcasters – which depend far more on advertising revenue – lost 3,232 jobs in the same period, or over 14% of their 2019 workforce. Despite tapping into both advertising and monthly subscriber fees, pay and specialty television services still lost over 400 jobs from 2019-24, or just over 9% of its 2019 workforce.

“Sustaining and supporting Canadian media and advertising sector will require coordinated efforts from industry and policy makers to ensure its economic and cultural contributions are fully recognized,” the report stated.

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The CRTC’s Performance, 1969-2025 looked at the commission’s role and performance based on three strategic objectives established by the Treasury Board in 2024 – transparency, accountability, and participation by the public in government decision-making.

Breaking down the CRTC’s own numbers, the FRPC report takes aim at the gradual reduction in hearings the public can actually attend – from dozens in the 1980s to a handful in the last decade, supplemented by private meetings with lobbyists (an average of 44 per year in the same period), which it says raises concerns about whose interests are being heard.

FRPC also reviewed CRTC resources, finding that from 1969-88, it issued nearly 31,000 decisions with an average staff of 380 people (some 80 decisions per staff person). From 2005-24, the commission issued just over 12,000 decisions, with an average staff of 460 full-time or equivalent persons, or roughly 27 decisions per staff person. Its 2025-26 Departmental Plan indicates a contingent of 717 full-time or equivalent staff, a 56% increase over the 2005-24 average.

“FRPC believes there are evidence-based grounds for serious concerns about the degree to which the CRTC is meeting TBS’ [Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat] 2024 principles of Transparency, Accountability and public Participation. The concerns centre around the fact that, in 2025, the CRTC is effectively unaccountable to Parliament and to Canadians due to: the non-transparency of the CRTC’s decision-making processes, the lack of any published objective evidence from the CRTC describing how it has implemented and is implementing Parliament’s broadcasting and telecommunications policies, its noncompliance with reporting requirements regarding CBC non-compliance which the Broadcasting Act mandates, its evasion of requirements for public hearings by redefining the term to mean both ‘appearing’ (public) and ‘non-appearing’ (non-public) processes, and its general lack of timeliness in its licensing, policy-making and alternative-dispute resolution processes,” the report states.

FRPC believes it’s time to undertake a review of the CRTC to determine “whether and how it has been and is implementing Parliament’s broadcasting and telecommunications policies, and whether it is meeting this responsibility in an efficient, effective and timely manner,” however the organization is emphatic that it is not suggesting the commission be replaced or dismantled.

“To the contrary, as the CRTC is empowered to change its own by-laws and its procedural rules, the CRTC can readily amend its processes to make them transparent and to facilitate its accountability – and can do so on its own motion and quickly,” it stated.

Recommendations

Among its recommendations, the Forum is suggesting the CRTC publish minutes of the meetings of the commission and its committees, including copies of any presentations made at meetings within one week; ensure that all of its decisions are signed by the commissioners who made the decisions (including those who dissented), and published, if necessary, by providing abbreviated summaries of the facts and outcomes; ensure decisions are published on matters resulting “in now-secret Letter Decisions”; and improve the timeliness of its decision-making by publishing decisions concerning broadcasting, telecom and online news applications within four months of receiving the applications, and policies within six months of initiating proceedings.

It is also asking the CRTC to publish annual – or more frequent – statistical updates on its implementation of Parliament’s broadcasting and telecom policies, convene an annual meeting of interested parties to respond to questions about data published by the CRTC, and invite comments every two years on the measures it uses to evaluate its performance.

Read an OP-ED from FRPC Executive Director Monica Auer on CARTT.ca, our sister web publication, here.

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Authored by the Vancouver think tank’s Senior Fellow and Addington Chair in Measurement, Steven Globerman, Promoting Efficient Competition in Canadian Telecommunications and Broadcasting maintains that particularly in the telecom space, competition has been too tightly managed by successive governments.

“Telecommunications and broadcasting are both vitally important to the economic health of a nation, and yet in Canada, both suffer from inefficient competition, which means Canadians suffer through more limited service offerings and high prices,” said Globerman.

Globerman suggests that with the emergence of Quebecor as a fourth national carrier, behind Rogers, Bell, and TELUS, the justification for regulated competition no longer holds.

The report says going forward, government policy in the telecom sector should focus on promoting efficient competition by eliminating all restrictions on foreign ownership except in cases where national security might be compromised. Globerman also writes that public policy in broadcasting has been too focused on subsidizing the production and distribution of Canadian content, which incumbent broadcasters largely pass on to consumers resulting in higher prices for streaming and other services.

“The subsidy scheme can be a barrier to entry or expansion, particularly for streaming services that are uncertain about their competitive ability to be profitable in the face of an effective tax on their revenues beyond a minimum revenue threshold. Efficiency and transparency argue for subsidizing Canadian content through general taxes if the relevant subsidy scheme is maintained,” Globerman writes. “Removing restrictions on foreign ownership of conventional broadcasters and cable companies would also enhance contestability in the sector.”

“Public policy in both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors has been directed at objectives other than promoting efficient competition, and the result has been less innovation, more limited choice of products and services and higher prices for Canadians,” said Globerman.

The post Foreign ownership, less regulation would promote more choice, lower costs says Fraser Institute study appeared first on Broadcast Dialogue.