Corus Entertainment Inc.’s profits strengthened in its first quarter as double-digit growth in ad sales from its female-centric channels gave a bump to revenue.
The media and entertainment company, which owns W Network and CosmoTV as well as other specialty TV channels and radio stations, said Tuesday it will boost its annual dividend by 10 per cent, or nine cents per share.
Corus said quarterly profits were $91.2 million, or 61 cents per share, beating average analyst estimates of 59 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.
The results marked an increase from $90.7 million, or 58 cents per share, a year earlier.
Revenues rose 7% to $236.9 million from $222.2 million.
“We are very pleased with our first-quarter results and in particular, the renewed signs of strength we witnessed in the ad economy,” said John Cassaday, president and CEO of Corus Entertainment.
“Double digit ad sales growth for our Women’s networks, continued growth on our Kids business powered by strong merchandising sales and strong evidence of a turnaround underway in our Vancouver Radio cluster, are all positive indicators that we are poised to achieve our growth targets in fiscal 2012.”
The company increased its annual dividend by nine cents to 95.5 cents for Class A shares and 96 cents for Class B shares.
Corus operates numerous other specialty cable channels including the Canadian version of OWN:The Oprah Winfrey Network, Teletoon, kids’ channels YTV and Nickelodeon Canada, country music lifestyle channel CMT Canada, and Sundance Channel Canada.
The company also owns radio stations across the country and children’s animated content producer Nelvana.
The Shaw family, which controls the company through its multiple voting class A shares, also controls Shaw Communications.
