Bell Media reports large digital revenue boost

The company's Q3 numbers also reveal slowing advertiser demand.

Bell Media digital revenue is up 40% “despite an ad recession and continued pressures in the B2B sector.”

BCE posted Q3 results, reporting net earnings of $771 million, down 5.2%.

In this morning’s earnings call, Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada, admitted that overall advertiser demand slowed in the quarter due to the economy and supply chain issues in key consumer verticals. However, Bibic says, given BCE’s broad mix of assets the year over year decline was “contained to only 2%.” Its digital revenues continue to accelerate, however, thanks to SAM TV and Crave.

It’s seeing “good momentum” in streaming and the digital ad market. BCE is also growing customer usage of SAM TV, together with a 7% increase in DTC Crave subscriptions, which contributed to a strong bottom line.

Bibic noted that CTV Canada is the country’s most watched conventional TV network, while English language entertainment specialty channels had a “strong showing,” for Comedy, Drama and Discovery.

In the French language market, he notes that Noovo gained viewership, outpacing competitors in primetime, up 4%. RDS, meanwhile, benefited from solid audience interest in F1 racing and a strong start to the NFL season.

Bibic says he has “great confidence” in the company’s long-term outlook.

When it comes to the other side of its business, Bibic says by year’s end 80% of internet build out plan will be completed and 5G service will be available to 60% of the population.

The company boasted its highest retail Internet activations in 17 years, up 36.3% to 89,652.

The company says it delivered a record 401,132 total broadband net customer activations — 224,343 mobile phone, 49,044 mobile connected devices; 89,652 retail Internet and 38,093 IPTV — up 50.3% year over year.

According to Bibic, the price of all goods and services in aggregate has increased 7% in the last year, while cost of cell service has declined 3%. In residential wire line, it is gaining “significant share of internet subscriber growth,” and the company’s Q3 results are a direct reflection of differentiated value of fiber-based internet service.

In September, it bought Distributel to strengthen its internet growth strategy in the value segment of SMB and residential.

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