Astral Media Inc., Canada’s largest radio and pay TV broadcaster, has reported a double-digit increase in quarterly earnings, beating analyst estimates.
Montreal-based Astral – which will become part of the BCE group of companies once a $3.4-billion takeover deal is completed – said Wednesday its net income was $38.2-million or 69 cents per diluted share in the quarter ended Feb. 29.
That was up 10% from 60 cents or $64.3 million in the year-earlier period.
Second-quarter revenue was up slightly, rising to $233.5 million from $232.7 million.
Analysts had estimated Astral’s revenue would be $228 million and earnings per share would be 66 cents, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters
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“I am very pleased by the company’s growth in the second quarter and by our properties’ continued ability to compete aggressively in a market environment that remains challenging,” president and CEO Ian Greenberg said in a statement accompanying the earnings report.
“Once again, consumers’ and advertisers’ appetite for our media brands, the soundness of our development strategy and the strength of our treasury management practices have enabled us to record Astral’s 62nd consecutive quarter of profitable growth,” Greenberg said.
Besides being Canada’s largest pay and specialty TV broadcaster, Astral is also the country’s largest radio company with 83 radio stations in 50 Canadian markets and its third-largest outdoor advertising company.
On a segmented basis, Astral reported a 4% increase in TV advertising revenue in the quarter and a one per cent increase in subscriber revenue.
Radio revenues declined 3%, while its out-of-home segment saw revenues grow 8%.
BCE, which already owns the CTV television network, the former Chum radio stations and numerous specialty channels, aims to create a media powerhouse that provides digital content to through personal computers and tablets, mobile devices like smartphones as well as traditional TV screens.
Astral’s pay TV services include The Movie Network, which has almost two million subscribers. It also has lengthy deals with U.S. cable channels HBO and Showtime for exclusive programming.
