By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said Thursday that the World Series run by the Toronto Blue Jays is helping enhance the owner’s brand.
The Blue Jays will play host Friday to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Rogers Centre in the first game of a best-of-seven series for the championship.
“We’re looking to each one of our pillars of growth being wireless, cable and now sports and entertainment to stand on their own and drive value, profitability and growth in their own respect,” Staffieri said on a conference call with analysts following the release of Rogers’s third-quarter results.
“But we also look to ensure that we’re capitalizing on the cross-synergies amongst all our assets. And the run of the Toronto Blue Jays and heading into the World Series, you can see that in spades in terms of the ability to enhance our brand, the ability to showcase our cable and wireless products and services to viewers of the game, and we’ve seen that throughout the year,” he said, adding that the company has seen it with other key events this year, including the playoff run by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“You see the power of live sports, and it’s good to see, and it’s been a benefit for us, as I said, in and of itself, but also in terms of helping the broader Rogers,” Staffieri said.
The Blue Jays run for the American League East title in September helped boost the company’s media revenues to $753 million, 26 per cent more than in the same period last year.
Also contributing to that boost was the results of the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery content and the closing this summer of Rogers’s purchase of Bell’s 37.5 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE). Rogers is now eyeing the acquisition of the remaining 25 per cent of MLSE from Kilmer Sports, which it expects to close within the next year. The cable giant will then field investor interest for a minority stake in the sports empire, which it values at over $15 billion.
Rogers saw overall revenue increase four per cent to $5.3 billion year-over-year, with net income jumping to $5.8 billion, factoring in a $5-billion non-cash gain from the fair market value of MLSE after the transaction.
The company added fewer net new postpaid wireless subscribers, at 62,000, down 39,000 from the comparable quarter last year. Despite that, postpaid churn was down 13 basis points to 0.99 per cent, the lowest in over two years.
“We’ve always focused on base management, but we’ve taken a much more holistic approach to base management and employing tactics that are resonating with customers in terms of what’s important to them, drilling down on customers that we think might have a propensity to churn and dealing with the issues in advance of them calling us,” Staffieri said about the churn this quarter. “And so there are a number of tactics that we’ve been going through, and the team is executing extremely well in base management. We expect to continue to see good churn performance across our entire base.”
The total postpaid wireless base grew by roughly 262,000 to nearly 11 million by the end of September 30.
Net new prepaid mobile wireless subscribers was 49,000 this quarter, 44,000 lower than the same period last year, for a total base that increased by 44,000 to 1.2 million.
Total monthly mobile phone average revenue per user was down nearly two bucks to $56.70 due to “ongoing competitive intensity in a slowing market.”
Rogers recently introduced a satellite-to-mobile product, called Rogers Satellite, that launched first with texting functionality but that would eventually include data and voice functionality in areas with dead zones.
“We are extremely pleased with the advancement of the roadmap,” Staffieri said Thursday. “Data wasn’t going to come until next year and voice was planned for the year after that. As a result of the work that our partner has been doing at a very rapid pace, we’re pleased that this quarter, what we will have for our customers is the ability to use data and apps.
“It will be somewhat light data,” Staffieri added. “We’ll see the capability in terms of bandwidth once it’s into production. But we’re really excited about that. And then the next to follow is voice. We don’t have something we can disclose on that. But you should expect it at some point in 2026.”
Rogers added 29,000 net new internet subscribers, 4,000 lower than the number it added in the same period last year. Despite that, it added roughly 228,000 internet subscribers to the base for a total of roughly 4.48 million.
The company lost 36,000 video subscribers, less than the 39,000 it lost last year. The total base was down by 128,000 to roughly 2.5 million.
Rogers also lost 31,000 landline customers this quarter, more than the 29,000 is lost last year, for a total base that declined by 113,000 to 1.4 million.
Net new home monitoring subscribers were 7,000 in the quarter, 12,000 lower than what it added last year, for a base that increased by 28,000 to 148,000.
Photo via Rogers
