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.
The regulator’s prohibition on activation, cancellation and modification fees came into effect June 12. However, the new regulations have been met with resistance from Bell, along with Rogers and Telus, which have each introduced fees that the CRTC says could violate the new ban.
Bell launched a $40 device handling fee in May that applies when customers purchase a device along with their wireless service plan.
The regulator launched a review in late June and said that if it determines the companies have violated the rules, they could face monetary penalties of up to $10 million.
BCE had a net gain of 41,594 postpaid mobile phone subscribers in its second quarter, down from 44,547 net activations during the same period a year earlier. It said the year-over-year decrease reflected a less active market due to reduced promotions as well as limited population growth in Canada.
The company said customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — was 1.02 per cent, an improvement from 1.06 per cent a year ago.
Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi said the results were largely in line with expectations, although Bell posted better-than-expected postpaid adds and churn.
“Wireless metrics in Canada continue to show pressure on ARPU, but (Bell’s) postpaid churn improved to the lowest quarterly level in three years,” he said in a note.
AI data centre build continues
On an adjusted basis, BCE earned 65 cents per share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 63 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
The company said business markets revenue — comprised of income from both telecom and AI services — was $1.08 billion in the quarter, down 8.5 per cent from $1.18 billion a year ago.
Earlier this year, BCE upped its revenue target for its growing AI business to around $2 billion by 2028 as it moves forward with plans to build a cluster of data centres.
That includes ongoing construction of a 300-megawatt data centre in rural Saskatchewan, which is expected to be operational in the first half of 2027. Along with that $1.7-billion facility, which is meant to eventually contribute around $500 million in revenue annually, BCE has three other fully contracted data centres.
Its facility in Kamloops, B.C., opened last year, while another in Merritt, B.C., launched in March and is expected to ramp up its next phase of operations in early 2027.
Another facility near Winnipeg is on track to enter service in the second half of this year, said Bibic, who reiterated BCE’s long-term plan to expand its data centre capacity to 800 megawatts of total power.
“We now have approximately 335 megawatts of contracted capacity, real facilities, real construction milestones, real customer commitments — all supporting the long-term AI-powered solutions growth platform we’re building.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)
