TORONTO – Rogers Communications’ third quarter results released this morning show strong results right across the board.
Consolidated revenue grew 13% to $2.6 billion, operating profit increased 23% to $984 million, and net income ballooned 75% to $269 million.
On the wireless side, subscribers now number more than seven million with net additions up 20% year-over-year (195,100 vs. 171,200 in Q3 ’06), while wireless postpaid ARPU grew 7% to $75.15 (driven by a 53% growth in data revenue to $183 million) and postpaid churn fell to 1.12%.
Data revenue now represents 13.6% of network revenue with monthly data ARPU in the quarter exceeding $10 for the first time, says the company’s press release.
Cable and Telecom ended the quarter with 590,500 residential voice-over-cable telephony subscriber lines. Net additions were 81,200 subscriber lines for the quarter, of which approximately 7,800 were migrations from the circuit-switched platform.
Internet subscribers grew by 55,000 to a total of 1,418,500, while basic cable subscribers increased by 9,100 to a total of 2,275,400 and digital cable households increased by 54,800 to reach a total of 1,291,800.
"The company’s continued healthy growth in subscribers and cash flow reflect our intense focus on delivering innovative products, great customer service and profitable growth," said Ted Rogers, president and CEO. "While our brand, franchises and markets are all strong, we have much work to do to maintain our leadership position."
On the company’s media side (radio, TV, publishing) the increase in revenue “for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2007 (of 6% to $339 million and of 7% to $953 million, respectively) over the corresponding periods in 2006 generally reflects growth across all of media’s divisions,” says the release. “Rogers Publishing revenue in 2007 was positively impacted by the launch of the Canadian edition of Hello! in 2006. Rogers Radio revenue increased due to a combination of organic growth and the acquisition of five radio stations in Alberta in January 2007. The growth in Rogers Sports Entertainment revenue compared to the corresponding periods of the prior year was due to increases in admissions, corporate sponsorships and broadcast revenue. Rogers Sportsnet revenue also increased over the corresponding periods of the prior year due to higher advertising revenue and subscriber fees. OMNI TV generated double-digit increases in national advertising for the quarter and year-to-date. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in The Shopping Channel revenue resulting from lower sales of electronic goods.
More to come after the company’s conference call this morning.
