MONTREAL – After a few delays in releasing its quarterly results due to the bankruptcy protection status of printer Quebecor World, Quebecor Media reported that cable division Videotron continues to show strong growth across almost all of its business units.
Overall, the company which also owns broadcaster TVA and the Sun Media newspaper chain, among other assets, recorded revenues of $877.1 million in the first quarter of 2008, a 16.8% increase, compared to Q1 2007.
Cable’s revenue grew by 20% to $430.6 million, while the company’s newspaper division revenue saw 21.4% growth, due to its purchase of Osprey Media in August 2007. TVA’s positive Q1 results can be found here.
Quebecor Media’s operating income was up 34.1% to $252.4 million at the end of Q1 ‘08.
"Quebecor Media’s results showed robust growth in the first quarter of 2008, with a 42.7% year-over-year increase in net income to $58.8 million," said Pierre Karl Peladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor Inc., in the press release "Once again, the excellent results were driven by sustained growth in the cable segment, which continued to register healthy customer increases in all its lines of business. The newspapers segment was boosted by the favourable impact of the acquisition of Osprey Media, which closed in August 2007. The broadcasting segment also improved its revenues and operating income.
“Meanwhile, Quebecor Media qualified as a new market entrant for the spectrum auction for Advanced Wireless Services (3G), which begins on May 27, 2008. In the auction, Quebecor Media intends to focus on the geographies it believes present attractive prospects for its service offerings. This new communication platform promises to be a growth driver for our company," he added.
Broken down by product lines, revenues from Videotron’s illico Digital TV service rose by 26% to $98.8 million. “The performance of illico Digital TV more than compensates for decreased revenues from analog cable television services,” says the release.
Internet service revenues saw an increase 21% in the quarter to $120.0 million, thanks to customer growth and home phone service revenue grew by 62.8% to $64.9 million.
In the company’s nascent wireless service business, revenues there increased by $4.6 million to $6.9 million in the quarter, as compared to the same time frame in 2007. The company has 50,000 wireless customers.
As for the cable customer statistics, Videotron now has 1.652 million customers in its territories, 802,800 of whom are digital, as of March 31, 2008. However, from the end of 2007 the cable division lost 20,000 analog subscribers.
It also added 32,000 Internet customers in the quarter, for a total of 965,100 and signed on 55,200 cable telephone customers, bringing that total to 55,200.
Finally, monthly average revenue per user at Videotron rose by $11 a month, or 16.3% to $78.37 at the end of March 2008.
