MONTREAL -- BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE) says its first-quarter profit suffered from a $137-million expense related to a long-running court battle with rival Quebecor but, after adjusting for that, its telecom and media business showed growth from last year.
The Montreal-based company said its net income attributable to shareholders in the first quarter was $532 million, down 13.5 per cent from the same time last year.
On a per-share basis, the profit was 63 cents per share, down from 79 cents per share.
The decline was mainly caused by a penalty that BCE's satellite TV service was ordered to pay in March to compensate Quebecor's Videotron and TVA subsidiaries.
The Quebec-based cable and TV broadcasting companies claimed they lost revenue when consumers stole Bell ExpressVu satellite signals for several years ending in 2005.
BCE says its adjusted earnings excluding the litigation were up 12.6 per cent from a year ago, rising to $705 million or 84 cents per share, mostly because of taking its Bell Aliant subsidiary private last year and lower income taxes.
Operating revenue from BCE's extensive telecommunications and media business was up 2.8 per cent from a year ago, rising to $5.24 billion from just under $5.10 billion.
Most of the revenue growth came from its wireless services -- up 9.7 per cent from last year to $1.64 billion, with average monthly revenue per customer at $60.83.
BCE said it added 35,373 wireless customers during the quarter. It also added 60,863 customers to its IPTV (Bell Fibe) television service, partially offset by a loss of 33,873 subscribers to its satellite TV service. Its Internet services added 39,650 subscribers while its wireline services lost 109,939 lines to residential and business customers.
BCE said its first quarter was affected by a recent CRTC decision that eliminates the 30-day notice period that customers need to give telecom companies before they cancel their TV, Internet and phone services.
The regulatory change forced the company to book an additional month of customer deactivations, with BCE losing 19,616 net subscribers overall -- with 7,702 in its TV business, 7,505 for Internet, and 4,409 for landlines.
Another CRTC rule change has shortened the span of wireless contracts, meaning the industry is bracing for a "double-cohort" of subscription expirations
BCE says its wireless customer retention costs jumped 10.2 per cent from a year ago to $173 million in the first quarter.
BCE chief executive George Cope told analysts on a conference call that the company has already anticipated the double-cohort and is "trying to get ahead of that as quickly as we can."
