The CRTC has released statistical and financial information for Canadian conventional TV stations for the broadcast year ended Aug. 31, 2011.

Profits at Canada’s conventional TV stations rose 1,300% in 2011, from $11.5 million in 2010 to $160.6 million in 2011. This huge jump is due to broadcasters cutting 7.2% from their operating budgets, a decrease from $2.05 billion in 2010 to $1.9 billion in 2011.

National advertising revenues remained unchanged for the year, at $1.5 billion. Revenues from the sale of local advertising grew by 1.5% for the year, from $350.1 million in 2010 to $355.3 million in 2011.

Investing in the acquisition and production of Canadian programs dipped for the year, from $1.5 billion in 2010 to $1.4 billion in 2011. But, according to the release, when 2010 Vancouver Olympic programming is excluded from the mix, private broadcasters spent 4.2% more on Canadian productions in 2011. Because of this, expenditures went up from $540.2 million in 2010 to $562.9 million in 2011. Independent programmers were paid $153 million of this to acquire programming.

Spending on foreign programming also declined in 2011, dropping 5.8% from $773.9 million in 2010 to $729 million in 2011.

Spending on Canadian programming included $58.3 million for drama series, $71.6 million for general interest programming, $316.9 million for news programs, $15.5 million for long-form documentaries, $39.5 million for other information programs, $33 million for music and variety shows, $800,000 for sports programming and $22 million for game shows, according to the release.

The report also included information on the CBC’s English and French-language conventional stations. The pubcaster reported advertising revenues of $369.6 million, up from $338.8 million in 2010, representing a 9.1% increase.