Canadian quadruple-play cableco Rogers Communications has reported 2% year-on-year rises in both fourth-quarter and full-year 2016 revenue, to CAD3.510 billion (USD2.682 billion) and CAD13.702 billion, respectively. Quarterly wireless service revenue growth of 6% was driven by growing subscriber numbers and the continued adoption of higher-value ‘Share Everything’ packages with associated higher data usage, whilst Cable division revenue increased marginally as strong broadband internet revenue growth of 9% in 4Q16 was largely offset by declining TV and fixed telephony revenue. Rogers recorded a net loss of CAD9 million in the October-December 2016 period (compared to net profit of CAD299 million in 4Q15) as a result of a CAD484 million impairment and other charges related to the abandonment of its in-house IPTV development project (in favour of partnering Comcast to utilise the ‘X1’ IPTV platform instead). Annual net profit for 2016 stood at CAD835 million, down from CAD1.342 billion the previous year.
Rogers reported post-paid mobile subscriber net additions of 93,000 in Q4 2016 (compared to 31,000 in the same quarter of 2015), whilst fixed broadband three-month net additions reached 30,000 (compared to 16,000 in the year-ago period); Rogers added that over 45% of its residential internet base is now on speeds of 100Mbps or higher, whilst its premium ‘Ignite Gigabit’ broadband service is now available to its entire footprint of over four million homes. In subscriber terms Rogers is Canada’s largest mobile provider, second biggest fixed broadband operator and the fifth-ranked fixed voice provider, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database.