For the year ending August 31, 2011 CRTC financial data show that the Parliamentary appropriation increased modestly from $1.14 billion in 2010 to $1.16 billion in 2011. However, the public funds that went to CBC TV increased to $839 million or by some $45 million in 2011, while CBC radio's federal funding declined to $327 million or by some $20 million (compared to 2010). Presumably the CBC Board of Directors approved this significant re-direction of federal monies and had approval from the government. Public monies are the most important source of funds for both CBC TV and radio. They represented 69% of CBC TV's expenditures in 2011 and virtually 100% of CBC radio expenses. These data combine English and French TV; a breakdown by language is available here.
CBC radio is considered the CBC's crown jewel but in 2011, surprisingly, CBC TV spent four times ($1.22 billion) the amount spent by CBC radio ($310 million). The most expensive CBC specialty channel was CBC News Network, which cost $72 million in 2011. RDI clocked in at about $44 million.
CBC took in $168 million more revenue than it spent on its main services and specialty channels in 2011. Total revenues were $1.84 billion and total expenses were $1.67 billion. Some of this $168 million may have been spent on cbc.ca or other internet activities or perhaps management was putting some money aside to help offset expected cuts in government funding. Advertising revenue on the main CBC TV channels increased to some $370 million; the Corporation's specialty channels had modest ad revenues, with CBC News Network generating the most in ad revenues ($14.5 million) and bold generating the least, only $56,000 in ad dollars.
The number of people on salary at CBC was basically unchanged in 2011, at about 9,500. Average salary increased to over $93,000, with employees at CBC News Network averaging over $97,000. (Don Newman left too early!) Salary expenses grew by about $50 million in 2011 and were just shy of $900 million last year.
Likely the biggest reason for CBC TV's increase in funding was to replace the analog transmitters at all of their stations with digital ones. This was a CRTC requirement of all stations and the biggest complaint towards the CBC is they didn't spend enough money and only transitioned their master transmitters and didn't transition any of their repeaters.
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