By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers reported Thursday that the success of the Blue Jays and majority ownership of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) have propelled the media division to revenue that surpassed the initial expectations of executives.
At $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter, Rogers Media more than doubled its revenue compared to the same quarter last year ($547 million). Rogers closed its purchase of Bell’s 37.5 per cent stake in the MLSE last summer, making it a 75 per cent owner in a sports empire it values at over $15 billion. That was before the Blue Jays took the Los Angeles Dodgers to the final game of the year, breaking Rogers broadcasting records along the way. Executives said they expect the Blue Jays to make a “strong return” next season.
The media division – with assistance from the advertising and subscriber revenue of its Warner Bros. Discovery channels – helped push overall revenue to approximately $6.2 billion in the quarter, up 13 per cent compared to the same period last year. Overall net income was $710 million, up 27 per cent over the same period.
“Clearly, Rogers has established a set of world-class assets with global appeal,” Staffieri added. “Importantly, the strong financial and operational results position us well as we pursue sports monetization opportunities in the future, including purchasing the remaining 25 per cent stake in MLSE later this year. We believe this will have significant upside in our communication business, and the synergies will further enhance our value proposition to attract and retain customers.”
Rogers chief financial officer, Glenn Brandt, said last year that the cable giant will look to close investor purchases of MLSE only after it has bought the remaining stake from Larry Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports. The call and put options to buy and sell, respectively, come due in July this year.
“We are seeing tremendous interest in the asset and the transaction,” Brandt said Thursday. “We just need to get the order right. We need to combine the operations first. That’ll come after buying control. And along with that, or coincident with that, we are talking with potential investors and approaching the market, and we’ll do so through this year and be ready to combine and bring a transaction as a relatively fast follow-through to buying out the minority interest.
“There’s tremendous interest around it, so there’s no need to wait.”
In wireless, executives said the company has been maintaining a “disciplined” approach to subscriber acquisition, not trying to match competitors’ promotional offers – even during the most competitive quarter of the year.
The idea, according to Staffieri, is to entice customers to the Rogers premium brand with value – such as adding its satellite-to-mobile service to plans – not through what Brandt called “unsustainable discounting.”
“We continue to focus on a value proposition that is beyond just price. Satellite is one,” Staffieri said. “The other successful piece we saw play out in the fourth quarter was our tiered hardware strategy, where discounting on hardware was tiered depending on the rate plans that customers came in on.”
Staffieri added that the company is focused on getting a leading share of service revenue growth.
“We have remained selective with our offers and have proactively elected not to follow our peers’ heavy discounting, reflected in our comparatively lower net adds for the fourth quarter,” Brandt added. “Rather than follow, we have delivered balanced financial performance and subscriber growth, which better preserves service revenue for 2026.”
Postpaid wireless net additions were 37,000, down by 32,000 compared to the same period last year. Gross additions were also down by 54,000 to 507,000. However, monthly churn was down 10 basis points to 1.43 per cent. The total postpaid base by the end of the year was approximately 11 million, up by 227,000 compared to the same period last year.
Prepaid net additions were just 2,000 in the quarter, down by 24,000 over the same period. Gross additions were 93,000, down by 24,000. Churn, however, was also 23 basis points lower, at 2.57 per cent. The total prepaid base was also up by 94,000 for a total of 1.2 million.
Total monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) was $56.43, down by $1.61 over that same period, and total wireless service revenue was flat year-over-year at $2.1 billion, and $3 billion with the addition of equipment revenue.
On internet, Rogers added 22,000 net internet subscribers, down by 4,000 compared to the same period last year, for a total base at year-end of roughly 4.5 million – up by nearly 224,000 compared to the same period last year.
Video losses were 21,000, lower than the 35,000 it lost last year for a total base of 2.5 million – down by 114,000 over the same period.
Landline losses were 32,000 in the quarter, higher by 5,000 over the year, for a total base of 1.4 million – down by 118,000 compared to the same period last year.
The company added 5,000 net new home monitoring subscribers, 8,000 less than what it added last year, for a total base of 153,000 – up by 20,000 compared to the equivalent period.
Photo via Rogers website
