Media segment revenue was up 24% year over year, bringing welcome growth in the first three months of 2025 to one of North America’s largest entertainment and communications companies. Alas, that segment brings far less revenue generation than Rogers Communications‘s Wireless and Cable businesses.
With Wireless growth up 1% and Cable growth flat, Rogers still managed year-over-year revenue and earnings per share growth. But that growth was below what analysts predicted.
From CityNews to its first media holding — CHFI-FM in Toronto — and from offering Xfinity MVPD services to its ownership of the storied Toronto Maple Leafs NHL franchise, Rogers is unrivaled when it comes to peers across North America when it comes to its asset portfolio.
That’s been a frustration for Bell Media, a partner of iHeartMedia in Canada, and Corus Entertainment, which each have seen fiscal challenges in the last several years that have led to reduction-in-force initiatives, loss of programming rights and stagnant ad revenue growth.
For Rogers, the Media revenue grew to $596 million CDN from $479 million CDN in Q1, lowering the adjusted EBITDA loss to -$67 million CDN from -$103 million CDN.
Two reasons were given for the improved revenue: higher sports-related dollars, including Loonies and Twonies tied to its ownership of Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays; and higher subscriber and advertising revenue linked to the launch of Warner Bros. Discovery‘s suite of channels and content in Canada.
That said, higher salaries for Blue Jays players and expenses associated with the WBD content suite launch sent operating costs to $663 million CDN, from $582 million CDN.
Meanwhile, Wireless revenue increased to $2.54 billion CDN from $2.53 billion CDN, and adjusted EBITDA as a result rose to $1.31 billion CDN from $1.28 billion CDN. Cable revenue slipped to $1.94 billion CDN from $1.96 billion CDN, but slightly higher adjusted EBITDA for the segment of $1.11 billion CDN was seen, moving from $1.10 billion.
The bigger takeaway from Cable’s performance may be in its ARPA and penetration results. The “ARPA,” or average revenue per customer, went down by $3.13 CDN to $136.97 CDN as the penetration declined to 45.6% from 46.5%. At the same time, the total number of video subscribers fell by 139,000 in Q1, to just below 2.59 million Canadian homes.
Put it all together, and Rogers saw its “total service revenue” move to $4.45 billion CDN from $4.36 billion CDN as its adjusted net income inched ahead to $543 million CDN from $540 million CDN. On an diluted basis, adjusted earnings per share were flat at $0.99 CDN.
That was a miss by 2 cents, Yahoo! Finance reports. Additionally, Five analysts offered revenue guesses, putting the consensus estimate at $5.11 billion CDN.
As the trading day progressed on the TSX, Rogers shared moved into negative territory. As of 1:38pm Eastern, “RCI-B” was down 9 cents to $35.03 CDN. Rogers shares are down 20% year-to-date.
Rogers, which does not break out its radio station or television station and network revenue, saw its Board of Directors declare a quarterly dividend of $0.50 CDN, payable July 3 to shareholders of record as of June 9.
