MONTREAL – Bell Canada reported today a 149.7% year-over-year increase in net earnings to $734 million and 6.2% adjusted EBITDA growth to $2.5 billion in the second quarter of 2021.
“A year after COVID-19’s initial impacts in early 2020, we’ve achieved strong, sequential improvement in total customer net additions; increased consolidated revenue and adjusted EBITDA more than 6%,” said Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada, in a press release.
“Our team’s outstanding Q2 performance announced today underscores that we’re moving forward, building on Bell’s 141-year legacy of service, innovation and investment like never before to deliver for all our stakeholders.”
Operating revenue for Bell Media specifically increased 30.4% to $755 million “driven by increased advertiser spending across TV, radio, out of home and digital media platforms, reflecting recovery in commercial activity impacted by Covid-19 during Q2 2020, as well as higher subscriber revenue,” according to the press release. Subscriber revenue was up by 6% “due mainly to growth in Crave and TSN Direct streaming subscribers. Crave subscribers increased 6% over last year, approaching the 3 million mark, while TSN Direct more than doubled its subscriber base thanks in part to a record-setting UEFA Euro 2020.”
Adjusted EBITDA for Bell Media “increased 23.7% to $214 million with the flow-through of higher year-over-year revenue. However, margin declined to 28.3% from 29.9%, due to a 33.3% increase in operating costs with the return of live sports and TV productions, and the non-recurrence of Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) funding received in Q2 2020.”
Operating revenue for Bell Wireline was down by 1.3% to $3 billion “reflecting both lower service and product revenues,” the press release says. “Wireline service revenue was unfavourably impacted in Q2 by the $44 million regulatory charge for the period March 2016 to June 2021 related to the CRTC’s recent decision on final aggregated rates for wholesale Internet access, resulting in a 0.9% year-over-year decrease to $2,891 million. Excluding this charge, wireline service revenue was up 0.6%, driven by a 12% increase in residential Internet revenue that was partly offset by softer business wireline results given the exceptionally high demand in Q2 2020 for conferencing services, remote collaboration tools and voice connectivity as Canadians began to telework with the implementation of Covid-19 restrictions.”
Bell’s wireless service operating revenue increased by 10.7% to $2.1 billion and wireless adjusted EBITDA increased 10.2% to $969 million “on the flow-through of strong service revenue growth, while margin contracted 0.2 percentage points to 45.5% due to increased operating costs reflecting increased commercial activity,” the press release reads. The company added 46,247 net new postpaid and prepaid mobile phone customers, which increased from 12,110 in Q2 of last year.
Bell further reported it is “on track to cover 70% of national population with 5G service by year end.”
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