Montreal: At its Feb. 24 agm in Montreal, Astral Media told shareholders tmn’s subscriber base had grown 40% in the past year to an all-time high of more than 500,000. French-track pay movie channel Super Ecran’s sub numbers jumped 20% to 280,000.

acm.a shares hit an all-time high on the tse on Feb. 24, up $2.20 to $33.25. The peak was followed by more peaks. At closing on Feb. 29, Astral A shares had risen to a new high of $40.30. acm.b shares closed at $42.

At the agm, president and ceo Ian Greenberg said the emerging digital roll out on cable could double pay penetration from the current 8% to 10%, pointing to the 60% or better penetration rate by dth distributors.

Greenberg says Astral ‘would like to acquire the other 50% of Family Channel,’ the former wic share split off to Corus Entertainment, and the related Family Channel interest in the highly-profitable Teletoon.

‘There are more buyers than sellers,’ he admitted, ‘but we would be very aggressive in trying to acquire more licences.’

Both Greenberg and chairman Andre Bureau strongly indicated Astral will remain a premium and specialty broadcaster with little, or no, interest in conventional tv, here or elsewhere. ‘It doesn’t seem like it’s our vocation. Conventional tv could drain Astral’s resources,’ Bureau says.

Astral and its partners hold 20 Canadian specialty, pay and ppv licences.

Bureau did say the company is actively looking to build a new media division ‘leveraging content and advertising’ resources. He says specialties like new science-tech channel z and lifestyle service Canal Vie are likely candidates for webcasting and e-commerce. Bureau says partnership talks with new media companies are underway.

Brokerage firms including Newcrest Capital and CIBC World Markets are projecting a mid-term increase in Astral shares to $39 to $40.

Astral’s Pro-forma results for fiscal ’99 (including Radiomutuel) include $471 million in revenues ($378.2 million, actual) and $64.6 million in ebitda.