Corus is continuing to see revenue growth driven by advertising and the increased adoption of its streaming services in the second quarter of the 2022 fiscal year.
Total revenue at Corus was up 1% in Q2 and increased 6% for the year-to-date. This is despite the fact that television ad revenue dropped by 1% for the quarter ending Feb. 28, though remains up by 9% for the year-to-date. Subscriber revenue, meanwhile, increased by 7% in the second quarter, with a 5% increase for the year-to-date. That put total TV revenue at $774.4 million for the fiscal year so far, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
Radio revenue, primarily made up of advertising, was up 8% in the quarter and 5% for the year to date.
John Gossling, Corus’ CFO, said during a call with investors on Friday that TV advertising revenue was relatively consistent with the slight decline as a result of temporary pandemic-related restrictions, ongoing supply chain issues and the impact of tent-pole sporting events aired on competitor networks.
Doug Murphy, president and CEO of Corus, told investors the company once again saw gains via audience segment selling and its automated Cynch platform. Optimized advertising revenue accounted for 42% of total advertising revenue, representing an increase of 49% over last year. Murphy said the growth demonstrates that Corus is providing a compelling alternative as it transforms how it sells television.
Digital advertising was bolstered by investments in video streaming platforms, primarily STACKTV and the Global TV app, which has created new audience impressions as the company drives digital advertising and subscriber revenue growth.
“More views means more inventory that we can monetize through direct and programmatic selling as well as dynamic ad insertion within video-on-demand viewing,” he said.
He also highlighted a 7% growth in subscriber revenue, which is attributed to the appeal of STACK TV and Nick+, which has close to 750,000 paying subscribers and is expected to grow to more than $500 million in annual recurring revenue this year. It represents the highest quarter of subscriber revenue growth since Corus acquired Shaw Media in 2016.
When asked how TV ad revenue is trending so far in Q3, Murphy said the company saw a “cooling” in Q2 but has seen some promising trends in the last three weeks.
“The big categories that are kind of leading the way in [the firming of the ad market] are retail financial services, entertainment and communication, but we still haven’t seen the recovery of some of the categories that have been relatively dormant now for extended periods of time, including automotive and health and beauty, makeup sales remains down pretty significantly.”
