Corus Entertainment says acquisitions helped the television and radio company achieve record-high first-quarter revenue, but profit was down from the same time last year.
The company’s television segment’s advertising sales and subscriber fees accounted for the revenue growth, which offset a decline revenue from radio advertising.
Corus television’s segment profit also increased, but not enough to offset a lower profit from radio.
Overall, the company had $51.9 million of net income and adjusted earnings in the quarter ended Nov. 30.
That compared with $55.2 million of adjusted earnings and $150.9 million of net income in the first quarter of fiscal 2014, which included several unusual items.
On Monday, the Toronto-based company announced that longtime president and CEO, John Cassaday is stepping down on March 30. He’ll be succeeded by chief operating officer Doug Murphy.
Corus operates a variety of specialty channels like W Network, ABC Spark and Teletoon, as well as a slate of radio stations. It acquired full ownership of Teletoon after buying the 50% formerly owned by Astral Media.
Corus bought the additional Teletoon stake as well as specialty channels Historia and Series+ after competition authorities ordered BCE to sell some of Astral’s assets as part of a friendly takeover deal.
Cassaday said in a statement on Tuesday that acquisitions drove the growth in television revenue and segment profit in a soft advertising market.
“Looking forward, signs of a recovery in television advertising demand are materializing and we expect this to gain traction as the year progresses,” Cassaday said.
“We are also encouraged by our recent repositioning of key large market radio stations, which is starting to translate into improved ratings, particularly in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.”
On a segmented basis, TV revenue grew to $181.5 million from $177.9 million and segment profit rose to $83.8 million from $82.5 million. Revenue from radio declined to $45.6 million from $48.1 million and segment profit declined to $12.8 million from $15.8 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. Corporate segment loss was reduced to $3.3 million from $6.1 million.
