Phone giant BCE was beaming about its recent CTV acquisition Thursday as it released its first quarter results, including an ad industry rebound driving up TV revenue growth by 7.5% during the latest quarter.

‘We successfully closed our acquisition of CTV a full quarter ahead of schedule, supporting the increased 2011 financial guidance and the 5% dividend increase we’re announcing today,’ George Cope, CEO of BCE, said after his company saw overall first quarter revenue rise 1% to $3.88 billion, even as earnings fell 29% to $503 million.

BCE did not break out its CTV revenue in its first quarter results, although Cope said that it will start reporting CTV results in its second quarter.

Instead, it indicated video revenues rose 7.5% to $460 million, from a year-earlier $428 million in 2010, on a larger customer base.

BCE also indicated it added 7,663 TV subscribers in the first quarter, against 19,889 added in the first quarter of 2010.

Factoring in its satellite TV and IPTV-based Fibe TV services, BCE now serves around 2.02 million video subscribers, up 3% from last year.

BCE has also moved quickly to push CTV content down its mobile phone lines.

‘With the launch of the new Bell Media business unit, we’ve quickly leveraged these superior content assets with enhanced Bell Mobile TV and Bell TV Online programming and the launch of TSN Radio,’ said Cope.

From Playback Daily