TORONTO – Corus Entertainment saw consolidated revenues for its first quarter grow by only 1% to $216.8 million, while consolidated segment profit dropped 2% to $81.3 million.
Net income for the quarter ended November 30, 2008 grew modestly to $40.6 million, up from $39.4 million reported last year.
Subscriber revenue growth of 12% and continued growth in advertising targeted to women helped grow television quarterly revenues by 4% to $141.3 million, the press release detailed. Quarterly segment profit increased to $64.3 million, up 1% from $63.6 million last year.
However, revenues in its radio division dipped 5% to $75.5 million, and segment profit dropped 14% to $22 million. Corus predicted that the “challenging" advertising market will continue to have a greater effect on its radio division results given its reliance on advertising revenues.
Corus also lowered its segment profit guidance to between $255 million and $265 million from $270 million and $280 million, due to an expected slowdown in advertising revenue. Free cash flow guidance of between $70 million and $90 million remained unchanged.
"This was a strong quarter for Corus, as we continued to grow the top line in a challenging market,” said president and CEO John Cassaday in the release. “We incurred significant expenses in the quarter to support the launches of Cosmopolitan TV, VIVA and HBO Canada and in Nickelodeon digital rights. These investments, which represented an incremental expense of almost $5.5 million, position us well for the future.”
