MONTREAL – Second quarter profits at Quebecor’s TVA Group almost doubled, helped by the sale of its interests in two English-language specialty channels late last year.
The Montreal-based television and magazine company reported net income attributable to shareholders for the quarter ended June 30 of $23.7 million, up from $13.8 million in the same quarter of 2011. TVA said Tuesday that it realized a $12.9 million gain after selling its 51% interest in The Cave and its 50% interest in Mystery TV to Shaw Media.
Its television sector's operating income dropped by more than $2 million to $17.04 million mainly due to an operating loss at the new TVA Sports service. This was partially offset by a 62.3% increase in operating income at its other French-language specialty services plus a smaller loss at Sun News channel.
“As expected, the operating loss of the new 'TVA Sports' specialty service negatively affected the Television sector's financial results for the second quarter of 2012”, said president and CEO Pierre Dion, in a statement. “However, all our other French-language specialty services continued to grow, registering a 17% increase in subscription revenues and a 4% increase in advertising revenues.”
The company’s publishing sector saw its operating income fall year-over-year to $2.6 million from $3.1 million, primarily due to lower newsstand sales and advertising revenues.
