Rogers posts bigger loss, improved revenues

Rogers Communications, Canada’s leading cable TV operator and a majority owner of Rogers Wireless, an operator with a nationwide footprint, reported a wider second-quarter loss even though revenues grew from the same period a year ago.

Rogers Communications reported a loss of $188.8 million Canadian, compared with a loss of $53.3 million last year. Revenues rose to $1.1 billion from $979.7 million. The company added 41,000 high-speed Internet subscribers, to reach 351,000 overall and deployed 48,700 digital cable terminals, bringing that total to 351,100. Basic subscribers, meanwhile, dropped by 4800 in the quarter, leaving Rogers with 2.26 million.

Overall, founder and CEO Ted Rogers said he was heartened by the results.

“We delivered on what we said we would do. Revenue growth is nearly 11%; operating profit is up 16%. All our operating division contributed to the growth,” Rogers said.

Rogers continued to dominate the Canadian cable space with 75% penetration--“the highest level of cable penetration of any large North American cable company,” Rogers said. “The key is revenue and profitability per home passed, and Rogers has sold at least one cable product to 75 homes out of every 100 homes passed.”

Rogers Wireless, reported net income of $733,000 or nothing per share, compared with a loss of $26.1 million Canadian, or 16 cents a share, a year ago. Operating profit rose to $130 million from $100.1 million.

“In wireless, we have the only true national footprint in Canada, a brand new state-of-the-art network, built on the global GSM standard, an immense base of over 3 million customers and a business with tremendous growth in front of it,” Rogers said. “Everything will be wireless in the future: your home, your laptop, your Blackbird and many other things.”

Looking ahead, Rogers offered up a bright prediction.

“In cable and wireless, the capex cycle has peaked. Our cable plant is one of the most advanced in North America. We have a brand new IP network, e-mail platform, state-of-the-art data center. Wireless continued to deliver improvements across all key operating metrics.”

Rogers took time to emphasize the company’s financial stability.

“With Rogers, our accounting is conservative by industry standards in both cable and wireless sectors. Because we’ve been responsible in executing our financial strategy, we are in a very strong liquidity position with available funds of over $2.4 billion at the end of the quarter,” he said.