Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) said its subsidiary Bell Media’s advertising and subscriber revenue grow during Q3 2024.

Advertising grew by 7.9%, attributed to higher digital advertising revenue, stronger year-over-year TV sports specialty performance and the financial contribution from Bell’s $410 million acquisition of Outedge Media Canada earlier this year.

Meanwhile, a subscriber revenue growth of 13.5% was attributed to retroactive adjustments to Bell’s contracts with Canadian TV distributors as well as its continued growth in Crave and sports direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming subscribers.

Total Crave subscriptions increased 12% from last year to more than 3.4 million. This was driven by a 34% increase in Crave DTC streaming subscribers, while sports DTC streaming subscribers increased 45%, largely attributed to live sports tournaments such as the Presidents Cup held in Montreal, UEFA Euros and the CONMEBOL Copa América.

BCE reported similar growth in Q2, where Crave subscribers grew 21% and sports subscribers doubled compared to the same period in 2023.

Overall, digital revenue grew by 19% in the quarter, compared to a 23% increase in Q2.

Last month, Bell Media inked a content and licensing agreement for the USA Network and Oxygen True Crime channels with NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution. The company also ended its legal dispute with Warner Bros. Discovery and signed an expanded content deal.

Bell Media’s operating revenue increased 10.1% to $782 million compared to Q3 2023, with 25.1% adjusted EBITDA growth to $254 million. This was attributed to the higher operating revenue, despite the 4.1% increase in operating costs due to higher TV content costs and the Outedge acquisition.

This month, BCE entered into an agreement to purchase 100% of Ziply Fiber for $5 billion in cash, as well as the assumption of outstanding net debt totaling approximately $2 billion. The acquisition, expected to close in the second half of 2025, will add approximately 1.3 million fibre locations across four U.S. states to Bell Canada’s footprint with plans to grow to over three million locations in the next four years.

BCE sold its 37.5% stake in Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) to Rogers Communications for $4.7 billion in September. The sale, which is expected to close in 2025, gives Bell Media content rights for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors on TSN for 20 years. BCE said $4.2 billion from this sale will be put toward funding the Ziply acquisition.

As well, Rogers and Bell Media will continue to split content rights for the Toronto Maple Leafs regional games and Toronto Raptors games, for which MLSE controls the rights. BCE is remaining the official telecom sponsor of the Toronto Raptors.

Back in February, BCE cut 9% of its workforce, or an estimated 4,800 jobs, also selling 45 radio stations. However, less than 10% of those cuts affected Bell Media jobs.

“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition,” said BCE and Bell Canada president and CEO Mirko Bibic in a statement.

Image courtesy of Bell Media