MONTREAL – Thanks to its much-ballyhooed purchase of Standard Radio, Astral Media‘s far now much bigger radio division showed the greatest growth in revenue for the year, up 156% to $296.3 million.
The company’s television revenue (it owns The Movie Network, Mpix, Super Ecran, Canal D and several other French and English specialty and pay channels) saw a 5% bump to $497 million. The company’s outdoor advertising revenue increased 45% to 72.1 million.
Fiscal 2008 was Astral’s 12th consecutive year of growth, said the press releases.
Consolidated net earnings for the company increased by 19% over last year to $150.5 million, and by 20% to $40.8 million for the quarter, compared to Q4 2007. Company EBITDA grew 40% for the year, and 47% in the fourth quarter.
" This unique track record in our industry speaks directly to our strong and stable management team, disciplined financial and operational practices and to the dedication of more than 2,800 employees", said Ian Greenberg, president and CEO, in the release.
He added: "I am very proud of delivering such strong results in the context of a very busy year at Astral Media, which included the integration of the Standard Radio acquisition, the rollout of the Toronto Street Furniture program and the launches of Playhouse Disney and Teletoon Retro".
