Rogers Communications Inc.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Rogers Communications Inc. First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. Following the presentation, we'll conduct a question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may reach an operator by pressing star then 0. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paul Carpino, Vice President of Investor Relations with Rogers Communications. Please go ahead, Mr. Carpino.

Thank you, Gaylene, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, I'm here with our President and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Stapieri, and our Chief Financial Officer, Glenn Brandt. As a reminder, we will be holding our AGM this morning at 11 a.m., and you can pick up that webcast through the Investor Relations website. To accommodate the AGM, this call will last approximately until 845, so we ask that you limit yourself to one question and a quick follow-up so we can accommodate as many questions as possible. We will follow up with you on any other questions later today. 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 2025 annual report regarding the various factors, assumptions, and risks that could cause actual results to differ. With that, let me turn it over to Tony.

Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report that Rogers delivered solid results in a very active first quarter. Service revenue and adjusted EBITDA were up. CapEx and CapEx intensity were notably down. Free cash flow accelerated, and debt leverage was further reduced. Wireless and retail internet net ads were positive. We continued to deliver industry leading margins in both wireless and cable. And media delivered strong top line growth and a significant improvement in EBITDA. Overall, this was another quarter of solid execution based on our clear discipline strategy. In wireless, Q1 is typically a quiet quarter. This year, we saw aggressive wireless promotional activity from competitors, driven by supply rather than demand. Heading into the quarter, we expected the market would be flat year over year with no population growth and potentially no new net ads. We did not lead on pricing aggression. As we've stated before, our priority is and remains on financials. This is even more important in a low growth environment. We were intentional and decided to lead with our value propositions, notably the best 5G plus network, terrific multi-line value, the most coverage with Rogers satellite, accelerated rewards with a Rogers red credit card, exclusive access to the best sports and entertainment experiences with Rogers beyond the sea, along with competitive pricing. As the quarter carried on, we saw increasing aggressive wireless promotional activity in the second half of the quarter. We decided to participate selectively, and when we decided to match the competition on price, we saw that our brand and value proposition resonated strongly. We finished the quarter with 33,000 net ads, and from a financials perspective, we improved Q1 wireless margins by 40 basis points to 65%, and maintained stable service revenue. Yesterday, we introduced new 5G Plus plans with new features to further strengthen our network differentiation and increased value. In cable, we applied the same disciplined approach. We delivered positive internet loading with 7,000 retail net additions. Service revenue and adjusted EBITDA were both up 1%, But after adjusting for the sale of our data centers last year, both service revenue and EBITDA were up organically a solid 2%. We improved Q1 cable margins by 30 basis points to deliver industry-leading margins of 58%. In media, we delivered strong results in what has historically been a seasonally soft quarter, reflecting the benefit of our MLSE investment. The scale and profitability of our sports and media operations is impressive. Revenue in Q1 was up 82% to just under $1 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was at break-even, largely as a result of the timing of rights fees, but nonetheless, a $60 million year-over-year improvement. 2026 will be a transformative year for sports and media. We expect to complete the purchase of the remaining 25% minority interest in MLSC in the second half of this year. Following the close, we plan to combine our assets into one of the most significant sports ownership, media, and entertainment entities globally. We are committed to unlocking the significant and unrecognized value with these premier sports assets, and we will look to create additional revenue and EBITDA synergies. We plan to bring in external investors for a minority interest in an entity we estimate will have a value in excess of $25 billion. We plan to use the proceeds from the sale of this minority interest to pay down debt. We believe these assets will provide long-term growth opportunities and significant value, even as we operate in the current low-growth telecom business. Importantly, our sports assets operate with significantly lower CapEx commitment, and we have a proven 25-year track record as strong operators of sports and media assets. Before turning the call over to Glenn, I want to touch on our capital reprioritization and increased free cash flow for 2026. In the current low-growth environment, It is critical to prudently manage leverage and maintain our investment-grade balance sheet as we complete our major multi-year investment cycle. We operate in a very capital-intensive sector. Returns on investments can take years and sometimes even decades. This means we need government policies that reward investment and maintain certainty, especially in a slow-growth environment. The government has introduced policies that do the opposite. And this means we need to adjust our spending and be highly disciplined and deliberate stewards of our capital. Today, we announced a reduction in our capital spending by 30% versus last year. Our updated guidance range for CapEx is now $2.5 to $2.7 billion in 2026, translating to a capital intensity ratio of approximately 12%. Correspondingly, we expect free cash flow growth of $4.1 to $4.3 billion in 2026, an increase of approximately $800 million from last year. Given the macro environment, we are focusing on delivering our balance sheet. In Q1, we reduced our debt leverage ratio to 3.8 times, down another 10 basis points from 3.9 times at year end. With the additional free cash flow, we plan to accelerate debt reduction in 2026 and beyond. Overall, we are executing our plan with discipline in the current low-growth telecom market, and we are managing capital prudently in this punitive regulatory environment. We are showing strong execution on capital efficiency and debt delivering as we move towards surfacing value by monetizing our sports and media asset portfolio. I want to thank our team for their terrific execution in the competitive environment and their ongoing focus on our key long-term priorities. I'll now turn the call over to Glenn.