Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) has reported an increase in advertising revenue in its Q1 financial results, driven primarily by the Super Bowl broadcast.

This is the first quarter of year-over-year advertising revenue growth since Q4 2022, said the company on Thursday (May 2).

Advertising revenue increased by 1.6% due to a year-over-year increase in sales for the Super Bowl and strong growth in digital, OOH and radio sales. According to Bell Media, the Super Bowl was the most watched sports competition of its kind, with an average audience of 10 million viewers on CTV, TSN and RDS, up 16% from last year.

The increase in the advertising segment was achieved despite continued low overall demand from traditional broadcast TV advertisers, and delays in the delivery of new scripted content due to the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023, which affected results in previous quarters.

Total digital revenues also grew by 33%, which was attributed to Bell Media’s programmatic advertising market and growth in its direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses, such as Crave, RDS and TSN.

However, BCE posted a loss in operating income in the first quarter – the company ended with $6.011 billion, down 0.7% from Q1 2023.

Media operating income also fell 7.1% to $725 million as a result of lower subscriber revenues year-over-year. Subscriber revenues decreased by 13.8%, with the loss attributed to “a favourable retroactive adjustment in Q1 2023 related to a contract with a Canadian TV distributor.”

Net earnings reached $457 million, a decrease of 42% from $788 million in the first quarter of 2023. The loss was attributable to higher expenses, as well as other costs, including higher severance payments.

This story originally appeared in Media in Canada

Usher and Alicia Keys perform onstage during the Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show at Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 11, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)