MONTREAL – Despite gains in its broadcasting and production segments, TVA Group Inc. saw its first quarter losses deepen by more than $0.6 million, the company announced on Tuesday.
TVA Group, a subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., reported a net loss attributable to shareholders of $8.0 million in the first quarter of 2017, compared with a net loss attributable to shareholders of $7.4 million in the same period last year. It also posted a consolidated adjusted operating loss of $594,000, a negative variance of $891,000 year-over-year.
The company’s Broadcasting & Production segment experienced a $657,000 adjusted operating income, a favourable variance of $4,541,000 due primarily to a 32.8% reduction in the adjusted operating loss of TVA Sports, a 41.4% increase in the adjusted operating income of the other specialty services, and a 29.6% increase in the adjusted operating income of TVA Network, reads the news release.
TVA’s Film Production & Audiovisual Services segment (MELS) reported a $1,635,000 adjusted operating loss, an unfavourable variance of $3,757,000 essentially due to a decrease in adjusted operating results from soundstage and equipment rental caused by lower volume than the unusually high level registered in the same quarter of 2016.
The Magazines segment recorded a $384,000 adjusted operating income, a negative variance of $1,675,000 mainly because of a decrease in operating revenues.
"We are satisfied with our first quarter of 2017 results, particularly in the Broadcasting & Production segment, which grew its advertising revenues for the second consecutive quarter, with year‑over‑year increases of 15.9% at TVA Sports, 8.3% at the other specialty services, and 3.3% at TVA Network”, said president and CEO Julie Tremblay, in the release. “Our strategy of moving the broadcast of some programs forward by a few weeks in 2017 in order to make a larger advertising inventory available to our advertisers paid off and contributed to the growth of our first quarter advertising revenues. Finally, the fact that the Montreal Canadiens and four other Canadian teams made it to the playoffs is a positive for TVA Sports, which holds exclusive French‑language broadcast rights to the playoffs."
Tremblay added that TVA Group's total market share increased by 0.3 points to 36.0% in the first quarter of 2017, compared with 35.7% in the same period of 2016, while LCN grew its share by 1.0 point to 4.2%, compared with 2.9% for its main rival, RDI.
