As a fall chill descends on the Canadian landscape and holiday parties begin to be penciled into the calendar, a young media mogul’s mind turns to one thing: quarterly results. And they are largely positive.

Cost-cutting and higher Apple iPhone sales helped Rogers Communications post better-than-expected third-quarter earnings. Rogers saw earnings edge 2% lower to $485 million during the three months to Sept. 30, against $495 million in the same period of 2008. But with one-time adjustments, Rogers’ profit line was $505 million, or 82 cents a share, up from an analyst profits forecast of 54 cents.

That performance came on overall revenue of $3.04 billion, up 2% from a year-earlier $2.98 billion. The wireless phone division posted overall revenue up 2% to $1.76 billion, and the Rogers Cable division saw revenue rise 7% to $773 million on subscriber growth, offsetting lower new product sales.

At the same time, Rogers’ iPhone advantage is set to disappear as rivals Bell Canada and Telus start marketing the phone to their customers. Further, the Rogers Media division (radio, TV and print operations), continues to sustain lower advertising sales, as overall third-quarter revenue fell 6% to $364 million.

Over at Shaw Communications, the recession has put the brakes on earnings growth, but not on the cable giant’s appetite for expansion into the mobile phone market. As Calgary-based Shaw rolled out its full-year 2009 results, the operator revealed it paid around $300 million in cash and stock to purchase the Mountain Cablevision system in Hamilton, ON, deep in arch-rival Rogers’ backyard.

Shaw posted fourth-quarter earnings of $124 million to Aug. 31, down 6.3% from $132.3 million in 2008. Full-year 2009 earnings fell 20% to $535.2 million, against a year-earlier $671.6 million profit.

Shaw, with its diversified cable TV, Internet, digital phone and satellite TV portfolio, saw overall revenues rise on digital cable customer growth and rate increases of $3 per customer on average. Fourth-quarter revenues jumped 8% to $872.9 million, while full-year 2009 revenues were up 9% to $3.39 billion.

Shaw’s cable unit saw its fourth-quarter revenue rise 10% to $682 million, and annual revenue jump 11% to $2.63 billion. The cable giant added 110,501 digital cable subscribers to get to 1.3 million customers in all at Aug. 31.

For its part, Corus Entertainment continues to profit from nesting TV viewers during the economic downturn. The broadcaster has reported a small rise in fourth-quarter earnings on overall flat revenues, TV subscriber gains and cost-cutting, even as it sustained soft radio and TV ad sales.

Corus posted earnings of $18.7 million in the quarter to Aug. 31, against a profit of $17.4 million in 2008, after recording a $5.4 million restructuring charge for radio and a charge to shutter Discovery Kids.

Revenue during the latest quarter jumped 5% to $195.2 million, from $185.8 million, with TV revenue rising 15% to $135.5 million as subscriber revenue jumped 19% after the launch of the female-aimed Viva and HBO Canada. At the same time, specialty TV airtime sales fell 10% in the fourth quarter and 5% for the year, with the kids channels continuing to sustain weak toy and food ad revenues. By contrast, Corus’ other female-skewing channels, including W, continue to post higher TV ad revenues, year-on-year.

Astral Media ended its fiscal year up 5% from 2008, hitting $905.7 million in consolidated revenues. Revenue in Astral’s TV wing was up 3% for the year, to $513.3 million. Subscriber revenue grew by 7% and 6% among its specialty and pay-TV channels, respectively. CEO Ian Greenberg noted that ‘operational discipline’ also enabled Astral to reduce its debt by $120 million.

Put into context of the greater investment required to launch Teletoon Retro, HBO Canada and four Virgin Radio stations, and Astral had a largely favorable year. However, radio took a bite out of Astral ‘s earnings last quarter, which saw the Montreal media giant lose $273.6 million, down from a profit of $40 million for the same period last year. The losses stem from a $317.5 million non-cash impairment charge on Astral’s radio licences, with ‘no impact on the current or future operations’ of the company, according to a company report.