MONTREAL – TVA Group ended 2014 in a sea of red ink, capped by a $4.4 million net loss attributable to shareholders in its fourth quarter.
The Quebecor Media subsidiary said that consolidated adjusted operating income for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, fell 51.4% to $29.4 million from $60.6 million in the previous year. Consolidated operating revenues of $439.3 million were 1.2% lower than $444.8 million in 2013, while the net loss attributable to shareholders of $41.1 million was a far cry from the prior year’s $15.7 million net income attributable to shareholders.
TVA Group renamed its Television segment as Broadcasting & Production and its former Publishing segment is now called Magazines. For 2014, Broadcasting & Production saw revenues drop from $386 million to $380.1 million, and adjusted operating income tumble from $53 million to $19.7 million. Revenues in Magazines dipped from $15.9 million to $15.3 million, while adjusted operating income decreased from $1.95 million to $1.74 million year-over-year.
For the fourth quarter, TVA Group recorded revenues of $129.8 million, an increase from $120 million in the same period last year, but a $4.4 million net loss to shareholders, versus a $8.3 million net income attributable to shareholders in the same period last year. Consolidated adjusted operating income of $6.81 million was down 66.5% from $13.5 million year-over-year.
The company attributed the losses to a drop in advertising revenues and increases in programming investments, coupled with the launch of TVA Sports.
"While the Broadcasting & Production segment's advertising revenues fell short of our expectations in the fourth quarter of 2014, we are very pleased with the audience response to our new sports offering, which yielded a market share of nearly 2.0% for TVA Sports and TVA Sports 2, compared with 0.4% in the same quarter of 2013," said president and CEO Julie Tremblay, in a statement. “New contracts for carriage of TVA Sports and TVA Sports 2 generated a 62% overall increase in subscription revenues for our specialty services compared with the same quarter of 2013.”
