Canadian and US cable group Cogeco’s fiscal third-quarter consolidated revenue increased by 6.9% year-on-year to CAD496.4 million (USD465.2 million), driven by growth of 3.5% in the Canadian cable segment (Cogeco Cable), improvement of 12.2% in the American cable market (Atlantic Broadband) and a 15.3% increase in the enterprise services segment (Cogeco Data Services). For the nine-month period ended 31 May 2014, revenue reached close to CAD1.5 billion, an increase of CAD235.4 million, or 19.3% driven by growth of 2.4% in Canadian cable, 65.7% in US cable and 75.4% in enterprise services, boosted significantly by the acquisitions of Atlantic Broadband and Peer 1 Hosting. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 6.6% year-on-year to CAD229.4 million in the three months to the end of May 2014, and by 18.7% to CAD662.5 million for the first nine months of the fiscal year.
During the March-May 2014 quarter, Cogeco Cable Canada recognised an impairment of CAD32.2 million related to an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) project which has now been abandoned as a result of ‘unexpected performance issues encountered with the platform.’ Subsequently, Cogeco Cable Canada has concluded a partnership with TiVo to allow it to offer next-generation television services that enable viewers to access content across multiple screens in and out of the home, which it will launch in Canada commercially ‘by mid-fiscal 2015’. The TiVo solution was successfully launched in the first half of fiscal 2014 in the US by Atlantic Broadband, ‘with great customer acceptance,’ according to Cogeco’s release.