MONTREAL – Quebecor Media’s TV and magazine division, TVA Group, reported a significant decline in net income for the first quarter of 2005, thanks to the launch of new TV channels and magazines.
In the quarter, TVA launched digital specialty ARGENT, a business channel, and will soon debut Mystère, a digital mystery channel.
Net income came in at $2.9 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2005, compared with net income of $8.3 million for same quarter of 2004. Also contributing to the decline was a higher rate of income tax resulting from the decreased use of future income tax assets.
Net income per share, for its part, was $0.09 for the quarter, against $0.26 for the corresponding year-earlier period. EBITDA (see definition below) for the first quarter was $6.8 million, compared with $12.4 million for the same quarter of 2004.
"We are happy with these results, despite the fact that they were adversely affected by the losses stemming from our new services," said Pierre Dion, president and CEO, TVA Group, adding, "TVA continues to make significant investments, whether through the acquisition of Toronto 1, the launch of new products in the publishing sector or the completion of development projects such as Mystère and Argent, while the TVA network continues to excel and progress both in terms of programming diversity and audience numbers. We are convinced that all these actions taken today will be instrumental in TVA Group’s future success."
Cash flow from operations were $1.1 million for the quarter, against $27.8 million generated during the corresponding year-ago period. This significant change in cash flow is mainly the result of changes in non-cash working capital items, which produced cash flow of $17.2 million for the first quarter of 2004, compared with an investment of $3.4 million for this quarter.
