The TVA Group says it is laying off 547 employees — nearly a third of its workforce — amid restructuring as the company contends with declining audiences and ad revenues.
The Montreal-based broadcaster says the shift involves overhauling its news division, ending its in-house entertainment content production and optimizing its real estate assets — including a reconsideration of the future use of its headquarters east of downtown.
Pierre Karl Péladeau, CEO of Quebecor Inc., which owns TVA, said in a press release that the subsidiary’s deficit is no longer sustainable.
The company aims to refocus its activities, reduce operating costs and continue to offer original Quebec content, Péladeau said.
The company attributed its financial strain to the proliferation of streaming services and the shift of advertising spending to web giants rather than legacy media.
“For over 10 years, TVA Group has been telling government bodies and regulators that the situation is urgent. Canada’s private media companies must be able to operate in a modernized ecosystem that can adapt to a borderless digital world,” said Péladeau.
TVA also took a shot at social media platforms for benefiting from links to news stories without paying for content and at CBC/Radio-Canada, which it deemed unfair competition.
One of the steps it said it’s taken to improve its financial position is to advocate for the removal of advertising from all CBC/Radio-Canada platforms, as well as for “a tightening of its mandate as a public broadcaster to better complement the private sector.”
Among the other steps it said it’s taken are the elimination of 140 professional and managerial jobs in February, the implementation of new technologies and the cancellation of some programs.
In July, Quebecor announced it would withdraw all advertising by its subsidiaries and business units from Facebook and Instagram in response to Meta’s decision to block Canadian journalistic content from its platforms. The move by the tech giant was in reaction to the Online News Act, which seeks to make companies such as Meta pay news organizations for sharing their content.
“More than ever, this demands regulatory relief, flexibility and tax credits that more adequately and equitably reflect the conditions facing broadcasters and producers in the television industry,” said Péladeau.
“The fact is that not only has nothing changed, but the situation is now worse than ever. The lack of consideration for our industry, coupled with the mounting challenges it confronts, has forced us to take unprecedented action.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2023.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“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.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
