CALGARY – Thanks to a new box rental program, Shaw Cable has now surpassed the one-million mark when it comes to digital subscribers.
While that didn’t happen in the first quarter of fiscal 2009, ended November 30th, 2008, it has happened since, the company said late Wednesday.
Consolidated service revenue and service operating income before amortization of $817 million and $368 million, respectively, improved 10% and 11% in the first quarter of the fiscal year, compared to Q1 2008. Funds flow from operations increased to $312 million compared to $286 million in the same period last year.
During the quarter basic cable subscribers increased 9,198 to 2,257,394, digital cable and Internet customers grew by 60,717 to 967,037 and 31,152 to 1,597,114, respectively, and phone lines were up 56,597 to 668,528. DTH customers increased just 448 to 892,976.
"We continue to leverage the capabilities of our robust broadband network to deliver solid subscriber growth in spite of increased Telco competition,” said company CEO and vice-chair Jim Shaw. “A new digital rental strategy was implemented late in October and we are seeing early success with a record quarterly gain of over 60,000 customers. On a year-to-date basis we’ve added over 100,000 customers and have now surpassed 1,000,000 digital customers.
“Our strategy of providing customers with a greater range of alternatives to take advantage of superior value home entertainment options in difficult economic times is paying dividends. We continue to see growth in basic cable and DTH customers, Digital Phone additions were strong, and we are maintaining our position as one of the North American leaders in Internet penetration. Our ongoing investment in the network, including node segmentation and DOCSIS 3.0 deployment, will further increase our delivery capabilities.
“…We are on track to achieve our free cash flow guidance for the year of at least $500 million."
Service revenue in the cable division was up 11% for the three month period to $629 million compared to the same period last year. The improvement was primarily driven by customer growth and rate increases. Service operating income before amortization improved 11% to $303 million for the quarter.
Service revenue in the Star Choice satellite division was $188 million for the three month period, up 6% over the comparable period last year. The improvement was primarily due to rate increases and customer growth. Service operating income before amortization for the quarter was $65 million, an increase of 7% over the same period last year.
