FIFA World Cup helps lift Bell Media revenues as BCE's overall Q2 profit down

FIFA World Cup helps lift Bell Media revenues as BCE's overall Q2 profit down

Record audiences for the 2026 FIFA World Cup helped drive Bell Media revenues higher in the latest quarter for its parent company BCE Inc., despite recording a lower profit overall for the three-month period compared with a year ago.

Strong advertiser demand during the soccer tournament — for which all 104 matches aired on Bell platforms such as TSN, RDS, CTV, Noovo, and Crave — boosted Bell Media's ad revenue by 5.3 per cent year-over-year in the second quarter.

Bell Media's operating revenue was up 8.9 per cent to $918 million in the quarter, as subscriber revenue increased 6.7 per cent. Total subscriptions for streaming platform Crave reached nearly 5.1 million, or 23 per cent higher than last year.

"That scale matters because it gives a strong owned and operated domestic platform for premium content, sports and streaming anchored in Canadian storytelling and our commitment to cultural sovereignty," BCE president and CEO Mirko Bibic told analysts Thursday on the company's earnings call.

He called the World Cup a "major highlight" for the quarter, with Bell's live coverage of games reaching 30.5 million unique viewers in Canada. The tournament's final between Spain and Argentina on July 19 became the most watched World Cup match ever in Canada, with an average audience of 6.4 million viewers.

"Matches also consistently ranked among the most-watched content on Crave," Bibic said.

"Overall, (the second quarter) reinforced the strategic role Bell Media plays inside BCE: premium content, growing streaming scale, and stronger digital monetization."

Total digital revenues grew 5.8 per cent year-over-year, with higher digital video ad revenue from increased adoption of ad-supported subscription tiers on Crave.

The company said that offset continued softness in traditional advertising demand, lower audio ad revenue following BCE's selloff of 45 radio stations in 2025, and non-recurrence of ad revenues related to last year's federal election.

In the second quarter, BCE's profit attributable to common shareholders totalled $558 million or 60 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended June 30. That was down from $579 million or 63 cents per diluted share for the second quarter of 2025.

Its operating revenue was $6.17 billion, up from $6.08 billion a year earlier. The increase came as service revenue totalled $5.5 billion, up 4.3 per cent from a year ago, partially offset by a 16.3 per cent decline in product revenue to $685 million.

BCE's mobile phone average revenue per user was $56.30, down 2.3 per cent from $57.61 a year ago. It said that decrease was due to the non-recurrence of revenues generated last year from the G7 Leaders' Summit, as well as lower connection fees related to the CRTC's new rules prohibiting certain customer fees.