Much lower costs at TVA Sports help bottom line though
MONTREAL – Quebecor Media’s broadcaster, film and TV maker, and publisher TVA Group announced Thursday its operating revenues in the second quarter of 2020 came in at $103.9 million, a year-over-year decrease of 29%.
However, the net loss attributable to shareholders in the quarter ended June 30 was $2.7 million, which compares favourably to the $6.2 million loss in the second quarter of 2019. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $7.36 million was double that of Q2 2019.
The $3.47 million in adjusted EBITDA on the broadcasting segment was $5 million better than last year’s second quarter “due to a 59.4% improvement in negative adjusted EBITDA at the specialty channels, particularly TVA Sports, whose costs reflect a significant reduction in the sporting events broadcast by the channel, including postponement of the (NHL) playoffs, partially offset by a 38.4% decrease in the adjusted EBITDA of TVA Network,” reads the press release.
Film and TV production and publishing both saw lower EBITDA in the quarter and the company noted it kept employees on the payroll by tapping into the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy program.
“As expected, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted our results in the second quarter of 2020,” said France Lauzière, president and CEO of TVA Group in the press release.
“Many of our activities were curtailed to comply with Quebec government directives. Among other things, the health crisis and the measures to curb the spread of the virus caused a significant decline in advertising revenues; a large reduction in the sporting events… a reduction in the publication frequency of some periodicals; and the suspension of most of our content production activities.
“TVA Group has however continued to provide essential services throughout the crisis in order to inform in addition to entertain the population, and we have been gradually resuming most of our activities since the end of the quarter, while maintaining and adjusting internal measures to safeguard the health and safety of our employees and the public. While our teams are primed and ready to resume our activities, the reopening is still subject to factors that are limiting its scope and speed, including the implementation of social distancing measures that complicate or slow the production of certain types of content, the shaky resumption of sporting events, and the precarious situation of some of our advertisers,” she added.
“I sincerely thank all our employees in all our segments and all regions of Quebec. They have made it possible for us to continue informing and entertaining Quebecers, and they are the architects of our reopening.”
For more on TVA’s results, please click here.
