Cable companies have emerged as major competitors in providing local and mobile telephone service and high-speed Internet to residential customers, says a report by Canada's federal broadcast regulator Thursday.

In 2007, cable companies captured 17.9 per cent of residential phone lines, the CRTC said. In the cellphone market, cable companies and other alternative service providers held a 40 per cent share of subscribers last year.

"Finally, cable companies provided high-speed Internet services to 55 per cent of subscribers (in 2007)," the CRTC said.

The Communications Monitoring Report combined information about the broadcasting and telecommunications industries for the first time instead of issuing separate reports.

"The convergence of technologies and industries has dramatically reshaped the communications landscape in recent years," said CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.

"This year's monitoring report gives us our first comprehensive look at the state of the overall communications industry in Canada, and is an invaluable reference for anyone interested in this industry." he said in a statement.

The communications industry posted revenues of $51.1 billion last year, an increase of 5.7 per cent from $48.3 billion in 2006.

Revenues for the broadcasting industry were up $816.1 million, or 6.7 per cent, and totalled $13.1 billion in 2007. Growth in this sector has been driven mainly by broadcast distribution companies, as well as by specialty, pay and pay-per-view television and video-on-demand services.

Telecommunications revenues increased by $1.9 billion, or 5.3 per cent , to reach $38 billion in 2007, mainly due to the demand for wireless and residential high-speed Internet services. The share of revenues earned by the competitors of established companies increased by 14.6 per cent from $13.7 billion in 2006 to $15.7 billion in 2007.

The CRTC has been reporting annually on the broadcasting industry since 2000 and on the telecommunications industry since 2001.

Other highlights include:

  • In 2007, Canadians listened to an average of 18.3 hours of radio per week, which represented a slight decline from the 18.6 hours in 2006. Private commercial radio stations captured 80.5 per cent of total radio tuning per week; the CBC, 12.4 per cent and other stations, 7.1 per cent.
  • Last year , Canadians watched an average of 26.8 hours of television per week. Canadian television services attracted 98.5 per cent of the French-language viewing audience in Quebec and 74.9 per cent of the viewing audience in the rest of the country.
  • Internet usage continued to increase among Canadians in 2007, with anglophones spending 13.4 hours online per week and francophones spending 9.8 hours, up from 11.7 hours and 9.1 hours respectively in 2005.
  • The number of Canadians who have watched a video online has more than doubled over the past three years, with user-generated content being more popular than professionally produced programs. Among the more popular online activities in 2007, 36 per cent of Canadians watched a video, 16 per cent listened to a streaming radio station and 17 per cent downloaded music.
  • Online advertising continued to experience growth, with spending rising to $1.2 billion in 2007 from $900 million in 2006.
  • In 2007, 7.7 million Canadians subscribed to cable services and 2.6 million Canadians subscribed to direct-to-home satellite distribution and multipoint distribution systems. The number of subscribers to digital services rose to 6.2 million in 2007 from 5.8 million in 2006.
  • Virtually all Canadian households in urban centres can access broadband services, compared with 81 per cent in rural areas. In 2007, the number of residential subscribers to high-speed Internet services increased by 12 per cent to 8.4 million.