By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said more customers than expected used the company’s credit card to finance handsets in the fourth quarter, which saw lower net adds in the postpaid wireless segment.
The cableco added 69,000 net new postpaid customers, far less than the 184,000 it added in the same quarter the year prior. It added 561,000 postpaid gross subscribers, down from the 703,000 it posted in the fourth quarter of 2023. But the telecom was able to reduce its churn, or the rate of customer defections, to 1.53 per cent from 1.67 per cent in the year prior. The total base at the end of the year was roughly 10.8 million, up from the 10.5 million it had over the same period.
The cable giant said it saw good gains in handset purchases aided by the company’s credit card, which allows customers to finance the devices over 48 months.
“The attach rate we had on that was far beyond expectations,” Staffieri said in a fourth quarter earnings call with analysts Thursday.
Tailwinds also came from the growth in data usage, which Staffieri said is in the range of 30 to 50 per cent. That growth translates to more customers taking up unlimited plans on the Rogers premium brand, which means a stabilizing force for the average revenue per user (ARPU) metric despite competitive activity in the quarter.
In fact, Rogers’s saw a slightly higher monthly ARPU of $58.04, eight cents higher over the comparable period.
Otherwise, the fourth quarter was “par for the course,” Staffieri said – not more or less competitive than the same quarter the year prior.
Staffieri however noted a decrease in the size of the market due to changes in immigration policy. The federal government announced in October its plan to pause population growth in the short term, which includes controlled targets for temporary residents, specifically international students and foreign workers, and permanent residents.
Telecom executives have long pointed to increased immigration as a boon for the industry because it simply means more customers and revenue to chase.
Staffieri said the company estimates that the market size was down 25 to 30 per cent compared to the equivalent quarter in 2023. He added the company estimates that the market grew just over four per cent in 2024 compared to over five per cent the year before, with a steady decline throughout each of the quarters. Now, he said the company anticipates market growth to be in the range of about three per cent this year.
But Staffieri stopped short of speculating on what type of immigration policy could come to Parliament Hill under a new government in the near future, only saying if there is upside, “it’s good for the industry.”
The company added 26,000 net new prepaid customers – seen as a gateway to the postpaid tier ladder – compared to a loss of 73,000 in that segment in the same period the year before. Gross additions, however, were down in the quarter, at 117,000 compared to the 156,000 it added over the same period. The churn was down significantly, at 2.8 per cent compared to the 6.2 per cent it had in the same period a year prior.
Staffieri noted churn improvements as one of the quarter’s achievements.
Revenues in the wireless segment were up to about $3 billion compared to the $2.9 billion it made the year before.
On cable, the company pushed beyond the 10 million homes passed mark this quarter. It added 26,000 net new internet customers, six thousand more than the year before, for a total base of roughly 4.27 million subscribers by quarter-end. Revenues in the cable segment were flat at just about $2 billion.
Video net losses were higher than the year before at 35,000 compared to the 12,000 it lost in the comparable period. The total base also shrunk slightly to 2.6 million.
Landline losses were 27,000 in the quarter, lower than the 38,000 it lost in the comparable period, for a total base of 1.5 million, lower than the 1.63 million of the year before.
The cableco added 13,000 new home monitoring customers, compared to a net loss of 1,000 customers the year before, for a total base of 133,000 by year-end.
Media revenues were $616 million, up from the $558 million it added in the last quarter of 2023.
The cable giant saw quarterly revenues of roughly $5.5 billion, up from the $5.3 billion it posted the year before. Net income was up significantly to $558 million compared to the $328 million it had in the equivalent period.
Staffieri also said the company is still working on closing its purchase of Bell’s stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and a deal to set up a subsidiary to sell parts of its wireless traffic transport network from a region of the country. It announced that agreement last quarter.
Screenshot of Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri
