CALGARY – Shaw Communications Inc. registered customer gains in all areas – telephony, Internet, digital TV and satellite TV – except basic cable in the fourth quarter ended August 31, the company announced Friday.
While Shaw’s revenue jumped 13.2% to $715 million in the fourth quarter over the same period last year, its net income declined 35% to $135.9 million from $210 million. The company’s bottom line was affected by an income tax recovery that occurred in the previous year that was not duplicated in the current fourth quarter.
Cable division revenue grew 16% to $542 million in the fourth quarter due primarily to customer growth and rate increases.
The company gained 41,604 telephony subscribers, 29,857 Internet subscribers, 15,709 digital TV customers, and 1,686 satellite TV clients, while losing 2,057 basic cable TV customers. The total number of Internet subscribers at the end of the quarter was 1,451,756, its digital TV subscriber base was 763,140, and its basic TV customer base was 2,226,841.
Shaw-owned direct-to-home satellite TV distributor Star Choice now has 879,585 customers.
The telephony subscriber gains are lower than what some analysts predicted; UBS anticipated Shaw would acquire 50,000 more telephone subscribers and National Bank Financial’s estimate was 48,900.
Shaw currently has 385,357 phone customers, according to the company’s financial results released Friday. The telephony service was expanded in the quarter to include Nanaimo, Cloverdale, Port Moody, Summerland and Duncan – all cities in British Columbia, and Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. The telephony service is now available in 82% of homes passed.
Shaw also recently launched a commercial voice service for small- to medium-sized businesses in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, and plans to continue roll-outs in its other major centers in fiscal 2008.
Shaw CEO Jim Shaw said in a statement, “Despite tight labour markets, we have increased our workforce by over 1,500 employees over the last two years, to approximately 9,000 in total, in order to ensure that we deliver on our promise to provide exceptional customer service, which we believe remains a key differentiator.”
He added: “As we head into our new fiscal year we look forward to what lies ahead and are confident that with our leading network infrastructure and the dedicated efforts of our employees, we are ready to meet the challenge of a competitive market and deliver another year of solid results.”
Shaw also announced board authorization of a 9% increase in its annual monthly dividend, or to 72 cents for Class B shares and to 71.75 cents for Class A shares, effective December 28.
