Rogers reports growth in Q2 revenue, profit

Rogers Communications Inc. reported a successful second quarter of the 2024 fiscal year. Although the company’s cable segment struggled, its wireless and media divisions saw notable growth compared to the previous year. Wednesday, the Toronto-based company announced its financial results for the three-months ended June 30. Overall revenues increased to just over $5.09 billion, a rise of one per cent compared to the previous year’s nearly $5.05 billion, driven largely by revenue increases in its wireless and media divisions, the company said. Profits grew by 261 per cent to $394 million from $109 million in Q2 2023. The staggering jump was mainly due to the impact of significant transaction fees and other costs the company had incurred in the same quarter last year during its acquisition of Shaw. Those costs drove a steep 73 per cent decline in profit for that quarter. Overall adjusted EBITDA grew by six per cent to almost $2.33 billion, up from $2.19 billion year-over-year. “Our focus on efficiency and disciplined market share growth is reflected in our industry-leading loading and industry-leading wireless margins of 65 per cent,” said CEO Tony Staffieri in a conference call with analysts. He also touted the company’s growth in the wireless market as a reflection of Rogers’ “strategy” of leaning on its Chatr brand in the flanker market – which has seen particular use among newcomers to Canada – while focusing the Rogers brand on market penetration. Wireless revenue increased by two per cent, up to nearly $2.47 billion from approximately $2.42 billion last year. Meanwhile, media revenue increased by seven per cent to $736 million from $686 million last year – mainly due to higher sports-related revenue from the Toronto Blue Jays. Rogers’ cable segment, however, faced some challenges, slipping by two per cent to just over $1.96 billion from last year’s $2.01 billion. CFO Glenn Brandt blamed the decrease on a decline in satellite TV revenues. “A vast, overweight portion of that is driven by satellite," Brandt said during the conference call. He said without the drop in satellite revenue, the decline would not have been as bad. As of June 30, Rogers had almost 10.6 million total postpaid mobile phone subscribers, an increase of 491,000 year-over-year. Postpaid net additions for the quarter were 112,000, down from 170,000 in Q2 2023. Total prepaid subscribers came in at just under 1.07 million, a decline of 174,000. For the quarter, Rogers brought in 50,000 net prepaid subscribers, whereas last year it lost 5,000. Staffieri credited the increase in wireless subscribers to the performance of Rogers’ network, its expanding footprint, as well as the company’s bundled offerings. “Reliability is becoming more and more important, and we were extremely pleased to see umlaut and Opensignal reaffirm our network performance and investor liability, that is the single biggest driver of churn reduction, as well as new acquisitions,” he said. Staffieri was pointing to two surveys that both declared the telecom Canada’s “most reliable” wireless network. The CEO highlighted Rogers’ recent deals with Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., and Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal and Xfinity broadband divisions. These deals bring “helpful” boosts to Rogers’ offerings, he explained. Monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) increased slightly this quarter to $57.24 from $56.79 last year. Rogers brought in 26,000 net retail internet subscribers, up from 25,000 last year. However, its home phone subscribers continue to fall, reporting a net loss of 31,000 this quarter compared to a loss of 29,000 last year. Video subscribers also fell, with the company losing 33,000 this quarter compared to gaining 12,000 last year. – Reporting by Phalen Tynes-MacDonald at pcreed@thewirereport.ca

Rogers reports growth in Q2 revenue, profit

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By Phalen Tynes-MacDonald
| July 24, 2024

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