TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - A weak TV advertising market led Canada's public broadcasters to suffer declining revenue last year for the first time in a decade, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday.

Canadian pay and cable channels, by contrast, posted impressive revenue gains in 2007.

The government statistics agency said that non-commercial conventional broadcasters, including the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., saw revenue fall 5.3% to CAN$1.26 billion ($1.24 billion) in 2007, compared with a year-earlier CAN$1.33 billion.

Private conventional broadcasters, which depend on U.S. network series for their ratings, last year eked out a 1.1% revenue gain to CAN$2.18 billion ($2.14 billion).

Despite the soft advertising market, Canadian pay TV networks saw revenue climb 13.5% to CAN$547.4 million ($537 million) in 2007, while domestic cable channels saw their year-to-year revenue rise 8% to CAN$2.17 billion ($2.13 billion).

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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