MONTREAL – Bell Canada today reported its net earnings increased by 10% to $813 million in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter in 2020.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 4% to $2.6 billion in Q3 2021 and operating revenue increased 1% to $5.8 billion.
“With a clear strategic roadmap to build back from the impacts of Covid-19 and invest in the growth opportunities ahead, our team delivered positive performances across all Bell operating segments in Q3,” said Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada, in a press release.
“As pace of our recovery from the crisis quickens, the strong demand for the speed and connectivity advantages of Bell’s leading networks and services is clearly reflected in our Q3 results.”
In media, operating revenue increased 15% in Q3 to $719 million and adjusted EBITDA increased 21% to $215 million.
Advertising revenue increased by 19% in Q3 “driven by stronger conventional and specialty TV performance, due to a timelier start to the new fall TV programming season, more live sporting events compared to 2020, and revenue generated from the recent federal election,” the press release says.
Digital revenue also increased, growing 32% in Q3 “due to rapid expansion of CTV’s AVOD product, continued scaling of the SAM TV media sales tool and continued Crave growth.” Subscriber revenue increased 12%, which was “driven by a 5% year-over-year increase in Crave subscribers.” Digital revenue “now represents 22% of total media revenue,” according to the release.
Bell’s wireline operating revenue decrease to $3 billion in Q3 and adjusted EBITDA increased 1% to $1.3 billion.
The company added 65,779 net retail internet subscribers, up 5% from the same quarter last year. “This represents our best quarterly result in 15 years, driven by the accelerated buildout of Bell’s all-fibre and Wireless Home Internet service footprints, and a more active back-to-school period compared to last year,” the press release says.
The company’s total wireless operating revenue was down in Q3 2021 by 1% to $2.3 billion “due to lower year-over-year product revenue, partly offset by strong service revenue growth,” the press release reads. Adjusted EBITDA was up 6% to $1 billion.
“Postpaid mobile phone net subscriber activations were up 45.9% to 114,821 from 78,706 in Q3 2020. The notable increase was driven by a 9.0% increase in gross subscriber activations, reflecting pent-up customer demand and greater consumer traffic from the reopening of all retail stores compared to last year’s Covid-19 restrictions, and higher direct and digital channel sales volumes,” the press release says.
“The Bell team has achieved our objective to steadily improve results each quarter since Q2 2020, when our business experienced its heaviest impacts from the Covid crisis,” said Bibic.
“We have grown total revenue and adjusted EBITDA back to the levels of pre-pandemic Q3 2019 while at the same time significantly accelerating our next-generation network infrastructure investments to help our customers and company come back better from the Covid crisis.”
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