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This has seen revenue growth for the commercial television industry slow to an annual average of 0.6 per cent and profitability decline since 2000.

In the 2005-06 financial year the commercial television industry reported total revenues of $3,989.7 million, generating a profit (measured as profit before interest and tax or PBIT) of $620.4 million.

The study also found that industry PBIT increased between 1992 and 2004 at an average annual rate of 6.7 per cent. The exception to this trend was a period of unstable PBIT around 2000. Recently, over a two-year period from 2004-05, PBIT has fallen by an average of 27.8 per cent per annum.


Even though the ACMA study did not take into account IPTV, it does underline a 2006 story in Smarthouse, which predicted that "IPTV entrants as well as Internet video services will give free-to-air and pay-TV operators a run for their money, warns IDC".

Quoting an IDC study, the report found that "consumers were increasingly turning to the Internet for video sources – though initially this is through P2P file sharing networks, other legitimate sources such as ReelTime or the Australian iTunes store".