MONTREAL – Growth across all three of its main business units helped to push up third quarter profits at Astral Media by 9%, the company reported Thursday.
Consolidated revenues for the quarter ended May 31, 2010 were $253.6 million, up from the $232.5 million in the same period last year. EBITDA was up 4% to $84.9 million from $81.8 million last year, while consolidated net earnings increased 9% to $48.5 million.
"I am particularly pleased that our advertising revenues increased 11% and that our subscription revenues grew a strong 7%, contributing to Astral’s 55th consecutive quarter of profitable growth”, said president and CEO, Ian Greenberg, in a statement. "While we still operate in a slowly recovering economic and advertising market environment, we continue to reinforce our relationship with key partners such as Disney, HBO, NRJ and Virgin and sustain our strategic investments to further strengthen our offering to consumers and advertisers."
Revenues at Astral’s television division increased by 9% to $144.9 million for the quarter. Pay-tv services The Movie Network and Super Écran marked a 4% increase in subscribers over the same period last year to approximately 1.8 million.
In its radio division, Astral reported $89.1 million in revenue, a 9% jump over the same period last year. Out-of-home sector revenue was up 10% to $19.5 million for the quarter.
