Astral acquisition weighs down third quarter profits at BCE

MONTREAL – BCE posted third quarter net earnings of $343 million, a sharp 34.9% drop from $527 million in the same period last year, as it absorbed the CRTC tangible benefits obligation of $230 million that it was ordered to pay as part of its acquisition of Astral Media.The company said Thursday that EBITDA for the quarter increased 2.2% to $2.06 billion.At the end of Q3, BCE (including Bell and Bell Aliant) served a total of 7,951,182 wireless subscribers, up 3% from Q3 2012; total TV subscribers of 2,438,100 (including 582,393 IPTV customers, reflecting the addition of 87,355 net new IPTV customers...