Rogers posts $9MN loss for Q4
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 27 January 2017

Leading Canadian operator Rogers Communications has posted a $9 million loss in its fourth quarter, largely tied to its decision to license a pay-TV platform from Comcast.

In the three months ended 31 December, Rogers also lost 13,000 TV subscribers, contributing to an annual loss of 76,000. That's better than what went before though: in 2015, it shed 128,000 TV subscribers.

In December, Rogers, which operates mainly in the Eastern parts of Canada, announced that it was planning to dump its IPTV platform and adopt Comcast’s X1 video platform. The plan cost the company $484 million in the quarter — but the investment will pay off in pay-TV growth, according to management.

“This is a proven product,” said Rogers CFO Tony Staffieri during the earnings call. “So the whole construct for it is much lower risk than the path we were otherwise on.”

Rogers saw $3.51 billion in revenue – up slightly from the $3.45 billion in revenue it realised in the fourth quarter of 2015.

On an adjusted basis, Rogers said it earned a profit of $382 million or 74 cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $331 million or 64 cents per diluted share in same quarter the previous year.

Comcast is seeing success at Canada’s Shaw Communications which also recently said it was adopting X1.