Corus Entertainment, which closed the Vancouver office of its Movie Central and cut dozens of jobs last month to reduce costs, announced Thursday that revenues were up in 2007.

‘Corus had an exceptional year in fiscal 2007,’ president and CEO John Cassaday said in a prepared statement. ‘Our share price increased by 26%. These positive outcomes for our shareholders were due to the strength of our core businesses in radio and television.’

Consolidated revenues for the year ending Aug. 31 were $768.7 million, up 6% from last year. Net income was $107 million, compared to $35.5 million last year. Corus Television, led by specialty advertising growth of 12% and subscriber growth of 8%, contributed full year revenues of $436.3 million, up 9% from $401.9 million last year. Movie Central finished the year with 883,000 subscribers, an increase of 7%. Segment profit for the year increased to $182.4 million, up 10% from $165.3 million last year.

‘Corus had another excellent year,’ agreed executive chair Heather Shaw in a statement. ‘We accomplished several important initiatives that position us well for the future such as securing the Cosmopolitan Television license… We are also excited by our new international ventures with Kidsco and qubo.’

In a late afternoon conference call, Corus’ management team told shareholders that, while profits are up, its programming costs had increased. In a follow-up interview with Playback Daily, a company spokesperson was vague about whether this would influence the number of feature films and TV shows Corus turns out: ‘We will continue to produce the quality and quantity of programming required to serve our audiences.’

In September, Corus, which is majority-controlled by the JR Shaw family, restructured its broadcast operations and post-production departments to eliminate duplication and save money. The television division’s interactive team is now part of Nelvana Studios. Corus also merged the responsibility for acquisitions and original productions at both Movie Central and Corus Kids, made up of the cable channels YTV, Treehouse and Discovery Kids.

A company spokesperson said its recent restructuring wouldn’t have an impact on projected revenues, ‘but there will be cost savings associated with the changes. Our overall strategy remains the same — to ensure that we have the appropriate structure and programming to best serve our advertising clients and audiences.’

Corus controls TV outlets including YTV, Treehouse, W Network and Movie Central, Nelvana, and radio stations such as CKNW, CKOI and Q107.