MONTREAL – Quebecor saw its third quarter profits jump by $40 million from the same quarter last year as a result of growth in all of its business segments.
For the period ended September 30, 2015, net income attributable to shareholders was $85.1 million, up from $45.1 million in the same period of 2014, due primarily to a $139.1 million non‑adjusted‑operating-income gain on litigation as a result of a Supreme Court decision ordering Bell ExpressVu to pay compensation to Quebecor’s Videotron and TVA Group.
Quebecor's revenues increased 9.5% year-over-year to $971.7 million, and adjusted operating income grew 8.2% to $391.4 million. On an adjusted basis, income from continuing operations was $74.0 million, up from $58.1 million in the same period of 2014.
The Telecommunications segment's revenues were up 6.0% in the third quarter of 2015 and its adjusted operating income was up 3.3% despite an $8.3 million unfavourable variance in one‑time items. Videotron's revenues from mobile telephony increased by $30.8 million or 40.7%, Internet access services grew by $15.3 million (7.1%), and Club illico over-the-top video service revenues were up by $2.5 million (73.5%).
Videotron's average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) increased 8.7% from $126.02 in the third quarter of 2014 to $136.94 in the third quarter of 2015.
Videotron grew its revenue-generating units (the sum of subscriptions to the cable television, cable Internet access and over-the-top video services, plus subscriber connections to the cable and mobile telephony services) by 85,800 this quarter, including increases of 39,600 subscriber connections to the mobile telephone service, 35,700 subscriptions to the over-the-top video service and 20,400 subscriptions to the cable Internet access service.
Videotron president and CEO Manon Brouillette said that results were driven by its mobile telephony service, which now serves 742,500 customers, and Internet access service, which has more than 1.5 million customers. The Club illico OTT service now has 228,500 subscribers.
Overall company revenues increased in Telecommunications ($43.0 million or 6.0% of segment revenues), Media ($39.7 million or 21.3%) and Sports and Entertainment ($4.1 million or 33.9%).
"Revenues increased in all our business segments. The solid performance reflects our effective investments and business development strategy”, said president and CEO Pierre Dion, in a statement. “The strong third-quarter results were driven by the continuing success of Videotron's service offering, particularly mobile telephony, which is steadily expanding its customer base, and by successful revenue diversification in the Media segment, with the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Mels studios and the emergence of the TVA Sports specialty channel.”
