Rogers Communications Inc.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Rogers Communications, Inc. second quarter 2024 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, we'll conduct a question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Naccarato, Director of Investor Relations with Rogers Communications. Please go ahead, Mr. Naccarato.

Thanks, Gaylene, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, I'm here with our President and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Staffieri, and our Chief Financial Officer, Glenn Brandt. Today's discussion will include estimates and other forward-looking information from which our actual results could differ. Please review the cautionary language in today's earnings report and in our 2023 annual report regarding the various factors, assumptions, and risks that could cause our actual results to differ. With that, let me turn it over to Tony to begin.

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to report that Rogers delivered another strong quarter of leading financial and operating results. For 10 straight quarters, we have executed our plan with discipline in a healthy and competitive growing market. Our results speak for themselves. In the second quarter, wireless service revenue and adjusted EBITDA were both up a healthy 4% and 6%, respectively. Our focus on efficiency and disciplined market share growth is reflected in our industry-leading loading and industry-leading wireless margins of 65%. In wireless, we led the market with 162,000 mobile phone net additions. This included 112,000 postpaid mobile phone net additions and 50,000 prepaid mobile phone net adds. The increase in prepaid net additions reflects our strategy this quarter to increasingly address the flanker market with our prepaid brand, which has also had a successful value proposition for the new-to-Canada market. This approach allowed us to continue to do well in the flanker category while at the same time keeping our focus on penetration growth on the Rogers brand where the majority of our subscriber loading occurred. As a result, and importantly, we continue to post positive ARPU growth, this quarter at 1%. Overall, we are delivering industry-leading loading with industry-leading financials in wireless. This robust performance over the past two and a half years is not an accident. We have a clear plan. and we're executing with discipline, day after day, week after week, quarter after quarter. And it's underpinned by our robust national distribution network, the value and flexibility of our Rogers 5G plans, and our record industry-leading investments to build Canada's largest and most reliable 5G network. Just this week, two global leaders in network benchmarking reaffirmed our network leadership position. Excuse me. Umlaut once again awarded Rogers Canada's most reliable 5G network, finding that our wireless networks outperform those of our competitors in reliability, which is increasingly what matters most to our customers. In a separate benchmarking study, OpenSignal recognized Rogers for delivering the most reliable wireless services in Canada. OpenSignal also named Rogers Canada's fastest and most reliable internet, The report found we consistently deliver the most reliable experience, the fastest overall download speeds, and the best streaming experience in Canada. With a clear strategy, sustained effort, and smart investments, we're delivering the most reliable network experience to Canadians. In cable, we remain focused on returning to modest growth in the fourth quarter while maintaining industry-leading financials. Cable revenue was down 2% in the quarter, reflecting a slight sequential improvement from down 3% in the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was up an impressive 9%, and cable margins expanded to 57%, a company and industry best. Our teams continue to work diligently to drive efficiency throughout the business, and we are targeting additional improvements throughout this year. In internet, we delivered 26,000 net new subscribers, up slightly from one year ago. The environment remains competitive in both the east and west, and we continue to drive growth through enterprise, MDUs, and the expansion of our TPIA and 5G home internet offering. In addition to our fixed wireless access launch earlier in the year, we've just expanded our TPIA offering in Quebec with the launch of TV and internet services in the province. It's early days, but we see a big opportunity to grow in Quebec, just like we do in southwestern Ontario, where we've also launched. With Shaw, we doubled our cable footprint to reach just over 60% of Canadian households. Now, with our fixed wireless access and TPIA network offerings, we're expanding our home product and coverage to reach almost 100% of Canadian households. We see this as an important strategic expansion as our wireless network covers almost 100% of all Canadians. Our satellite initiative will also further solidify our coverage leadership. We also continue to advance our DOCSIS roadmap. We're successfully trialing DOCSIS 4.0 modem technology in select Calgary customer homes using our enhanced cable plan. This is a global first, and it's delivering 4 gigabits download and 1 gigabit upload speeds at an extremely low cost per home. In the more immediate term, we continue to execute on our plans to return the cable business back to organic revenue growth by year end. We will pursue this growth in a disciplined and targeted manner. Finally, in media, top line grew by 7% led by revenue growth at the Toronto Blue Jays and adjusted EBITDA was breakeven. The third quarter is seasonally strong for our media business and we fully expect media to return the profitability in the second half of the year. At the same time, we continue to invest in the future and long-term growth. Our landmark content deals with Warner Brothers Discovery and NBC Universal is part of that investment. Through these deals, we will bring Canadians the most watched lifestyle and entertainment shows on their platform of choice. Before I turn things over to Glenn, let me say that our teams have worked extremely hard to deliver strong results in a competitive market. Rogers continues to consistently deliver industry-leading financial results and best-in-class customer growth. In the past 10 quarters, we've added an impressive industry-best 1.7 million mobile phone and internet net additions. More Canadians are choosing Rogers than any other carrier, full stop. We've done this by out-executing our competitors and making strategic record investments to grow our business. I'm proud of our team, and I'm confident in our plan to drive continued growth while maintaining our track record to deliver disciplined financial results. Let me now turn the call over to Glenn.