TSN grows annual profit by 37%, earns highest specialty channel profit of $58.3M

BCE Inc. specialty channel TSN grew its 2011 profits 37 per cent over 2010, generating $58.3 million in profits last year despite a decline in subscriber numbers, financial data released Wednesday by the CRTC showed. Higher revenues and lower expenses helped TSN increase pre-tax profits by nearly $16 million, or 37 per cent, over a year earlier, even as its subscriber base slipped by 1.92 per cent to 9,003,852, the commission said in its annual release of specialty and pay TV data. TSN’s revenues totalled $289.4 million during the year, including $112.8 million from subscriber fees, up 10.1 per cent from $102.6 million in 2010. The station also collected $34.3 million from direct-to-home revenues, and $129.6 million from national advertising revenues in 2011, the commission said. Rogers Sportsnet, a competing sports service operated by Rogers Communications Inc., was also among the most profitable specialty channels in the 2011 broadcast year. Its pre-tax profits dropped from $47.1 million in 2010 to $31.3 million in 2011. Sportsnet also saw similar declines in subscriber numbers on the year, with its subscriber base falling 1.89 per cent to 8,957,170 in 2011, the commission’s data said. Sportsnet’s revenues topped $217.8 million for the year, including $106.2 million from subscriptions, up from $104 million in 2010, and $67.5 million in national ad revenues, up from $59.1 million in 2010. Independent sports station The Score recorded $7.5 million in pre-tax profits and Bell’s French-language sports specialty channel, RDS reported $30.1 million in pre-tax profits, up from $24.3 million in 2010. RDS' subscribers grew 7.76 per cent during the year to 3,445,734 at the end of fiscal 2011 from 3,197,725 a year earlier. Other top-earning specialty stations during the year included Corus Entertainment Inc.’s YTV channel, with $49.6 million in pre-tax profits, and Teletoon Canada Inc.’s Teletoon/Télétoon service, with $41.6 million, the commission said. Bell specialty stations Discovery Channel and The Comedy Network also recorded pre-tax profits of $35.4 million and $24.3 million respectively, despite slight declines in total subscriber numbers during the year, the data showed. Astral Media Inc.’s Super Écran reported $18.6 million in 2011 pre-tax profits, down slightly from $19.1 million in 2010 despite identical subscriber numbers of 626,848 a year earlier. Astral has reached an agreement to be acquired by Bell for $3.38 billion. Shaw Communications Inc.’s National Geographic Channel reported pre-tax profits of $12.1 million in 2011, up from $8.4 million a year earlier. National Geographic Channel’s profits have climbed each year since the station recorded a loss of $19,000 in 2007, the commission said. Those increases partly reflect the channel’s increasing subscriber base that reached 6.4 million in 2011, up from 5.7 million a year earlier and 3 million in 2007. Weather specialty stations MétéoMédia/The Weather Network reported profits as a single service, which reached $10.4 million in 2011, down slightly from $12.2 million in 2010. The channels are owned by Pelmorex Communications Inc., the CRTC reported. Quebecor Media Inc.’s startup Sun News Network lost $13 million before taxes in its first year on the air, the data showed. Corus-owned specialty channel OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network reported $8.5 million in profits in 2011 and just under 6 million subscribers at the end of the year. Vertically integrated companies Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Quebecor reported a total of $46.2 million in pre-tax profits across their pay and specialty services in 2011 and spent $73.6 million on Canadian programming. Non-vertically integrated companies reported a total of $1.7 million in pre-tax profits across their services and spent $30.8 million on Canadian programming, the CRTC said. The Movie Network (TMN), owned by Astral, and Movie Central, owned by Corus, were the top-earning pay-TV channels in 2011, earning $138.7 million and $110.5 million in revenues, respectively. TMN recorded $26.9 million and Movie Central recorded $24.2 million in pre-tax profits, the commission reported. news@thewirereport.ca

TSN grows annual profit by 37%, earns highest specialty channel profit of $58.3M

Broadcast | May 16, 2012

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