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Jeff Barnett
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Communications Industry's Annual Revenues Near
$350 Billion, Census Bureau Reports
The U.S. communications industry's revenues soared by 8 percent in 1997,
to $348 billion, while operating expenses kept pace, increasing by 10 percent, to
$286 billion, according to data released on the Internet today by the
Commerce Department's Census Bureau.
Highlights for selected industry groups for 1996 to 1997:
Cable and Other Pay Television Services
- Revenues for cable and other television pay services showed an
increase of 13 percent, to $43 billion.
- Basic-service revenue -- subscription fees received from residential
and commercial customers for basic television cable services -- increased
14 percent, to $21 billion.
Radio and Television Broadcasting Services (Taxable Firms only)
- Revenue from radio and television broadcasting services increased 4
percent, to $39 billion. Expenses were stable at $31 billion in 1997.
- Broadcast television, with $29 billion in revenue -- a 2 percent
increase from 1996 -- accounted for three-quarters of the total revenues
of the radio and television broadcasting industry group.
Telephone Communication Businesses
- Revenues from cellular and other radio-telephone services continued to
grow, increasing by 17 percent, to $33 billion.
- Overall, the telephone communications industry produced $256 billion
in revenues, an increase of 8 percent, while expenses were $212 billion,
an increase of 11 percent.
The estimates from the 1997 Annual Survey of Communication Services are
subject to sampling and nonsampling error. Sources of nonsampling error
include errors of response, nonreporting and coverage. Measures of
sampling variability, presented as relative standard errors, are shown in
the tables.
The U.S. Census Bureau, pre-eminent collector and disseminator of timely,
relevant and quality data about the people and the economy of the United
States, conducts a population and housing census every 10 years, an
economic census every five years and more than 100 demographic and
economic surveys every year, all of them evolving from the first census in
1790.
