MONTREAL – Bell announced today its first quarter 2022 financial results, which highlight the company’s pandemic recovery and an increase in net earnings of over 30% to $934 million, compared to the same quarter the previous year.
The company also reported operating revenues increased 2.5% to $5.9 billion, and adjusted EBITDA increased 6.4% to $2.6 billion.
“Bell’s strong Q1 financial performance demonstrated excellent execution by the Bell team across all segments, with consolidated financial results surpassing pre-COVID levels for the first time since the start of the pandemic,” said Glen LeBlanc, chief financial officer for BCE and Bell Canada, in a press release.
The company’s wireless segment reported total operating revenues increased 5.2% to $2.2 billion, and adjusted EBITDA increased 9.3% to $1 billion.
“Bell added 32,176 total net new postpaid and prepaid mobile phone subscribers, up significantly from 2,405 in Q1 2021,” the press release says. “Postpaid mobile phone net subscriber activations totaled 34,230, up 4.0% from 32,925 in Q1 2021.”
The company’s prepaid mobile phone customer base was reported to have decreased by 2,054 net subscribers. In the same quarter of 2021, the company reported a net loss of 30,520.
For wireline, total revenue decreased 2.2% to $3 billion and adjusted EBITDA grew 0.3% to $1.4 billion compared to Q1 2021.
Bell added 26,024 net new retail internet subscribers (an increase from 21,208 in Q1 2021) and 12,260 net new retail IPTV subscribers (an increase from 10,696).
The company also reported 67,090 retail Internet customers and 9,025 IPTV customers were “gained from the acquisition of EBOX and other related companies,” the press release explains.
Bell Media reported operating revenue increased 15.7% to $825 million and adjusted EBITDA growth of 45.5% to $208 million, compared to the same quarter the previous year.
“Advertising revenue increased 8.5%, driven by more sports TV programming compared to Q1 2021, a strong NFL postseason including our broadcast of Super Bowl LVI, which was the most-watched program of Q1, strong year-over-year specialty news performance, increased out-of-home advertiser demand as leisure and travel activities resumed more fully with the easing of COVID restrictions, improved year-over-year radio performance, as well as continued digital growth,” the release says.
Subscriber revenue increased 22.1%, which is attributed to Crave streaming subscriber growth, as well as “a one-time retroactive adjustment to subscriber revenue related to a contract with a Canadian TV distributor.” (The TV distributor was not specified in the press release, and Bell did not respond to Cartt.ca’s request for more information on the matter.)
Bell also reported digital revenue increased 84%, which was “driven by Crave direct-to-consumer growth, further rapid scaling of our strategic audience management (SAM) TV media sales tool and growth in TV digital advertising including with our CTV advertising-based video-on-demand (AVOD) service,” says the release.
“Bell’s Q1 results highlight our continued momentum from 2021 into this year, demonstrating that our accelerated fibre expansion and customer experience improvements continue to offer greater value to our growing base of customers and the communities we live in,” said Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada.
“Bell’s solid performance across all segments shows that we have the right strategy in place, we’re consistently executing on that strategy and our products and services are resonating with our customers.”
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