File photo of John Cassaday, president and chief executive officer of Corus Entertainment.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
Corus Entertainment Inc. has reported a drop in fourth-quarter profits as the specialty TV channel and radio station operator also saw revenues shrink in its most recent period.
Corus, controlled by the Shaw family through multiple voting shares, says its net income attributable to shareholders for the three months ended Aug. 31 was $23.3-million or 28 cents per diluted share.
That was down from $27.7-million or 33 cents diluted share in the same 2011 period as consolidated revenue fell to $195.6-million from $200.2 -million.
Corus says adjusted earnings for the period totalled $30.2 -million or 36 cents per share, up from $27.7-million or 34 cents per share. That result stripped out a non-cash tax expense of $6.8-million.
The adjusted earnings met the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters who, on average, had expected adjusted earnings of 36 cents per share on slightly higher revenue of $201.8-million.
For the full year, Corus said net income attributable to shareholders was $148.7-million or $1.78 per diluted share, up from $141.5 -million or $1.72 per diluted share.
Full-year consolidated revenue was also up at $842.3-million from $825.2-million.
"Corus finished the year with strong gains in specialty advertising revenues and segment profit for the fourth quarter," president and CEO John Cassaday said of the results.
"Looking ahead, we are confident that disciplined cost controls, coupled with our portfolio of assets, position us well for continued growth in fiscal 2013," Mr. Cassaday added.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Haran Posner said the quarterly results were largely in line with his expectations.
But Mr. Posner noted that revenues of $196-million fell slightly short of his estimate of $199-million.
Radio revenues also were essentially flat year over year but Mr. Posner said he viewed that as "reasonably resilient," given the weak advertising market.
Revenues for the radio division were $47.7-milion, up slightly from $47.6-million in the same quarter in 2011.
The television division had quarterly revenues of $147.8-million, down from $152.5-million in the same quarter in 2011.
For fiscal 2012, Corus said its pay TV channel, Movie Central, had 976,000 subscribers.
Corus operates specialty cable channels such as the Canadian version of OWN: the Oprah Winfrey Network, Teletoon, kids' channels YTV and Nickelodeon Canada, W Network, country music lifestyle channel CMT Canada, Sundance Channel Canada and CosmoTV.
The Shaw family, which controls the company through its multiple voting Class A shares, also controls Shaw Communications, Canada's second-largest cable TV operator.
Corus also owns radio stations across the country and children's animated content producer Nelvana.