Rogers Communications Inc Q1 FY2024 Earnings Call

Thank you, Ariel, 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. As a reminder, we will be holding our annual meeting this morning at 11 a.m., and we will be concluding this call at approximately 8:50. We'd ask that you keep your questions limited to one question and a brief follow-up, if necessary, so we can get as many questions as possible. To view the webcast of our AGM, a link can be accessed through the Investor Relations portion of our website. With that, let me turn it to Tony to begin.

Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report that Rogers delivered another strong quarter of growth in the first quarter of 2024. This reflects the ninth straight quarter of momentum for the company. Looking at the first quarter, we executed our game plan with discipline and focus. We delivered industry-leading results and made record investments to drive growth, improve efficiencies and lead the industry. In Q1, we grew total service revenue by 31% and adjusted EBITDA by 34%. We reaffirmed our industry-leading financial guidance for the year, and we invested $1.1 billion in capital across our Cable and Wireless networks. All in all, a very productive first quarter. In Wireless, service revenue and adjusted EBITDA were both up 9%. Cable service revenue was up 94%, and adjusted EBITDA was up 97% due to the Shaw acquisition from one year ago. From a subscriber perspective, we continue to attract the most customers, adding 124,000 postpaid mobile phone and retail Internet net additions. This is the highest number of net additions in our industry. In Wireless, we led the market with 98,000 postpaid mobile phone net additions, up 3,000 from last year. And we continue to see a healthy mix from the new-to-Canada market. The competitive intensity from the fourth quarter carried into Q1, and the team executed their game plan with discipline. In retail Internet, we delivered 26,000 net additions, up 12,000 from one year ago. We introduced Rogers 5G Home Internet in the quarter, offering home Internet to customers in places we historically could not. It's early days, but we're seeing good consumer interest in the product. Overall, we remain focused on returning to organic revenue growth in Cable by year-end. In Media, top and bottom line were down as a result of a onetime gain in prior year's results and front-loaded programming and payroll costs in the quarter. We will see things even out as the year progresses to deliver profitable growth here on a full year basis. Our Media brands continue to be critical to our company and our customers as demand for sports and entertainment grow. Q1 was the most-watched first quarter in Sportsnet's history, entrenching Sportsnet as Canada's number one sports network. Moving on to the merger. April marks the one-year anniversary of the Shaw merger. I have to say I continue to be impressed with the Shaw assets and the power of our combined scale. We have integrated the two companies and delivered on the key commitments we set for ourselves in the first year. We delivered on our $1 billion synergy targets one year ahead of schedule, and we remain focused on selling noncore assets to reduce our debt leverage ratio. Overall, we are well ahead of schedule, and I could not be prouder of our team. I'm also proud of our efforts to continue to drive innovation in the quarter. In January, we completed the first nationwide live test of 5G network slicing technology in Canada. This technology will use our 5G network to create multiple lanes of wireless traffic. Each slice or lane can provide tailored features, from low latency to faster speeds to more capacity. To start, we'll use the technology to offer a dedicated lane for first responders to have priority on the network. Over time, it will be a meaningful solution for our business customers. Network slicing will also help accelerate the expansion of Rogers 5G Home Internet. To get ahead of wildfire season, we installed AI cameras in the Okanagan Valley to help first responders monitor, detect and prevent wildfires. This important trial will help us understand how to use 5G technology and, soon, satellite technology to mitigate the devastating impact of climate change. We also announced a strategic partnership with CableLabs, a global tech organization, to launch CableLabs North at the Rogers Campus in Calgary. CableLabs has been a crucial source of technological breakthroughs for the broadband industry, including DOCSIS 4 technology that has brought together industry leaders like Comcast and Charter to develop scalable tech. Rogers technologists will work with global industry partners to develop converged 5G and 10G solutions that ensure seamless connections for customers in and out of the home. As we look ahead to the launch of our 10G and DOCSIS 4 Internet roadmap, CableLabs North will be front and center. Taking a step back, I'm pleased with our consistent, sustained momentum. We have delivered strong results for nine straight quarters, and we have exceeded our Shaw merger targets. At the one-year anniversary of the merger, I remain confident in our plan and proud of our team. I would like to thank our entire team for their continued commitment to driving growth and innovation. Let me now turn the call over to Glenn.

Thanks, Tony, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for your time and attention this morning. Rogers' first quarter results reflect another strong quarter of industry-leading growth and execution. Notably, it also marks the 1-year anniversary of closing our Shaw transaction, and I am very pleased to report that we have very substantially outpaced our initial timeline for our cost synergy, deleveraging and overall integration targets. We continue to execute well, including identifying opportunities to further improve operating performance, network and customer service reliability, and innovation. In Wireless, against the backdrop of a highly competitive environment, we continue to lead with very strong year-over-year growth across subscriber net adds, service revenue, adjusted EBITDA and ARPU. Our continued emphasis on our premium 5G services and the Rogers brand and the value these plans generate for our customers is reflected in our sustained growth and financial performance. We have led on Wireless operating and financial performance for nine consecutive quarters now and not by accident. Wireless service revenue in the quarter grew 9%, and postpaid mobile phone customer net additions were 98,000, up 3,000 year-over-year on what was also a very strong prior year comparative. Importantly and deliberately, the vast majority of our new customers were welcomed on our premium Rogers brand, which is fundamental to our operating strategy. Overall, mobile phone ARPU as reported was up more than 1% year-over-year. More strikingly, on an organic basis, adjusting for the impact of our Shaw Mobile customers, ARPU is up almost 3% year-over-year. Once again, our disciplined focus on the Rogers brand is delivering leading market share and strong financial performance. Postpaid mobile phone churn in the quarter was 1.1%, up 31 basis points year-over-year. While churn remains elevated, it is down from the prior quarter, both in absolute terms and in the amount of increase from the prior year comparative. These results reflect our continued discipline, balancing subscriber growth and financial performance. As a result, our Wireless adjusted EBITDA is up 9%, and our adjusted EBITDA margin grew by 10 basis points year-over-year to 64%. Moving to our Cable business. We continue to build momentum on subscriber loading, both East and West, and in and out of our wireline territory as we pursue growth in the 40% of Canadian homes not covered by our wireline footprint. Leveraging our national capabilities from coast to coast, we are targeting to return our Cable business back to organic revenue growth in the fourth quarter of this year. Cable revenue was up 93% year-over-year, roughly doubled in scale as a result of the Shaw transaction. Organically, across the combined operations, underlying revenue is down 3% year-over-year, reflecting sustained promotional competition carrying over at least in part from the 2023 holiday period through the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA also reflects the scale benefits of the Shaw acquisition, growing 97% year-over-year. On an organic basis, Cable's adjusted EBITDA was up 7% year-over-year against an already strong prior year comparative, largely reflecting our substantial success driving cost synergies, which I will come back to shortly. We are encouraged by our performance on retail Internet net additions, which is starting to reflect the benefits of our growth strategy. Retail Internet net additions were 26,000 in the first quarter, almost doubled from 14,000 in the prior year. In a very competitive environment, we are seeing growth driven by our diverse product capabilities and starting to grow customer additions in markets where Rogers has not previously operated. Offsetting the impact of competitive promotional pressure on revenue growth, I am very happy to report that we have completed our cost synergy plan a full year ahead of schedule. We exited the first quarter having achieved our full $1 billion cost synergy target run rate within 12 months from acquisition rather than the original 24-month target. Moreover, through the first full year of the Shaw acquisition, we have realized approximately $600 million of cost synergies in our reported results, more than double our original 1-year target. These savings will continue to flow through our results in the coming quarters, providing further support for our industry-leading 56% Cable margins, which are up 140 basis points against the prior year. Finally, in our Sports & Media business, Media revenue was down 5%, and adjusted EBITDA was down $65 million year-over-year. Most notably, the year-over-year change reflects a very strong prior year comparative affecting Media content revenue and cost as well as higher payroll expenses at the Toronto Blue Jays this year. At a consolidated level, Q1 total service revenue increased 31%, and adjusted EBITDA was up by 34%, driving our consolidated EBITDA margin up by 210 basis points year-over-year to 45%. Capital expenditures were up 19% year-over-year to just over $1 billion, most predominantly reflecting continued investment in our Wireless and Cable networks to support our growth priorities. We also saw an increase in our Sports & Media capital spend as we completed the majority of the second and final year of renovations at the Rogers Centre. Early feedback from fans and players has been exceptional. While capital expenditures did grow, capital intensity declined by approximately 170 basis points versus the prior year to approximately 21.6%, and after-tax free cash flow grew 58% year-over-year to $586 million. Turning to the balance sheet. At March 31, we had $4.6 billion of available liquidity, including $800 million in cash and short-term deposits and $3.8 billion available under our bank credit facilities. Our weighted average interest rate on all borrowings is below 4.8%, which is down from 4.9% at December 31, 2023, and our weighted average term to maturity is 11 years, both measures favorably impacted by our very successful bond financing completed in February. Our 4.7x debt leverage ratio at quarter end was flat to year-end 2023, notwithstanding seasonal working capital and spectrum investments made in the first quarter. Our target is to reduce leverage by roughly half a turn each year on average, supported by a combination of earnings growth, available free cash flow and proceeds from asset sales. We have processes currently underway to sell targeted noncore assets, predominantly real estate assets, which are at various stages of progress and/or consideration, and we do anticipate completing sales in 2024. While taking longer than originally anticipated as a result of softness in the current real estate market ahead of anticipated interest rate reductions, we remain committed to this initiative, and we are being diligent to ensure we maximize proceeds. In the meantime, the combined effect of our December 2023 sale of our Cogeco holdings and our February 2024 U.S. dollar bond issue, both of which were used together with other available funding to repay a combined $5 billion of our Shaw-related bank term loans, has lowered our 2023 annual interest costs by approximately $100 million, in turn helping free cash flow. Finally, we are reaffirming all of our 2024 guidance range targets. This includes service revenue growth of 8% to 10%, adjusted EBITDA growth of 12% to 15%, capital expenditures of $3.8 billion to $4.0 billion and free cash flow in the range of $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion. Our industry-best outlook reflects our confidence in continued strong execution and world-class assets. Let me conclude by joining Tony in thanking our entire team here at Rogers from coast to coast. Our employees remain focused and committed to serving our customers with a collective passion to grow and innovate for the benefit of all Canadians. Thank you for your time this morning. And with that, Ariel, can we please commence with the Q&A? Thank you.

Our first question comes from Sebastiano Petti of JPMorgan.

Solid Internet results in the first quarter. Can you provide some insights on the growth within the 60% of homes you currently cover compared to the remaining 40% where you are expanding, possibly through fixed wireless access or third-party Internet access? It would be helpful to understand what you observed in the first quarter regarding benefits in either area. Additionally, how do you anticipate the progression of Internet net additions throughout the year across these two segments? My other question pertains to the competitive environment. The growth in average revenue per user was strong on the Wireless side. How do you view Rogers' market strategy and its ability to sustain ARPU growth, especially with the advantage gained from transitioning Shaw subscribers to the Rogers brand? Are there any other factors we should be aware of that could impact Wireless ARPU?

Sebastiano, thank you for your question. Regarding the Internet net additions, they stemmed from various initiatives, including both in-footprint efforts for our wireline business and the launch of our fixed wireless access product. While we won’t disclose the specifics, our strategy has been straightforward, and what you're seeing in the first quarter is a continuation of positive trends. In our wireline cable area, the focus in the West has been on increasing gross additions, which we are seeing through various initiatives, and we’re pleased with early developments in that market. In the East, our emphasis has been on reducing churn, and initial efforts are yielding good results. Our wireline footprint serves about two-thirds of Canadian households. For the remaining third, we have a dual strategy: we launched fixed wireless access, which has been very successful due to both the quality of the product for home Internet, including video streaming, and the ease of purchasing and setting it up, which appeals to consumers. This approach has been particularly beneficial for newcomers to Canada who are looking for home Internet solutions alongside their smartphone needs. We've also begun wholesaling Internet to bundle with our national wireless offering in regions where we lack wireline assets, although it's still in early stages. We acquired Comwave to support this strategy, and that aspect is progressing well too. Regarding your second question about competitive intensity and ARPU, I want to reaffirm that some of the offers in the market, which continued from Q4 into Q1, target specific segments. We are engaging in a balanced approach, competing aggressively in some areas while ensuring the majority of our net additions are under the Rogers premium brand. We're seeing success in encouraging customers to upgrade from 4G to 5G at our $50 entry price point, which has been a significant driver for overall ARPU growth. Looking ahead, we will maintain this strategy as consumers seek to upgrade their phones and access the best 5G network, which we will continue to pursue.

Our next question comes from Vince Valentini of TD Cowen.

Maybe I can start with a clarification first. Glenn, you said interest costs, $100 million lower in 2023. I think that's what you said. I'm not sure that's what you meant.

Lower than they otherwise would be in '24 from those initiatives, Vince. So if I said '23, I misspoke it. This year's interest cost will be down by $100 million as a result of the interest savings from the Cogeco proceeds received in December. That's money we don't have to borrow. And then also the CAD 3.4 billion we raised in February, we raised that at about 4.9%, and it's paying back floating rate term loans that we put on for the acquisition of Shaw that were about sitting just over 6.5%. And so the interest savings on that for the calendar year, we did this in February, is another $50 million on top of the roughly $50 million we save from the Cogeco proceeds. So 2024 interest expense is down.

Yes, down versus what it would have been otherwise. Your full year '24 interest costs are going to be higher than full year '23, they have to be.

Well, absolutely. Right. But those initiatives have lowered what otherwise would have gone into our results and what would be part of which will be reflected in guidance. We knew about Cogeco. We had not baked in the lower borrowings in February from the bond deal.

The second question maybe for you as well, Glenn, but whoever wants to chime in. I think your underlying ARPU performance is extremely encouraging given what we've seen in the market in terms of advertised pricing. I know you're doing a great job migrating and focusing on the Rogers brand, but I mean, I think you would admit you do have some customers coming in at these lower-end flanker prices. So to be able to offset that and show ARPU growth the way you are is great. I just don't want that to be overshadowed by these subscriber write-downs. I mean, it makes sense if they're nonperforming subscribers, they're businesses that have been discontinued. It's logical, but it would really help us if you could adjust for it. Like if that 1.4% ARPU growth you put up, if you didn't have the 166,000 subscriber write-downs, would that still have been slightly positive, do you think?

Absolutely. It would still have been positive, Vince. We have consistently had ARPU growth on the right side of 0 for the last several quarters. Without those write-downs, it still would have been positive. And on an organic basis, we still would have had growth north of 1%. It would have been in the range of 1.5% or so without those write-downs. The write-downs are just a reflection of how we're going to market. We've discontinued those business lines. And just to be clear, we put that in our release. But very clearly, yes, we would have been positive without those write-downs, Vince.

Our next question comes from Maher Yaghi of Scotiabank.

I want to commend you on reaching your $1 billion in cost synergies much earlier than anticipated. Tony, I understand you might not want to keep us updated on those synergies moving forward. However, could you share what other initiatives you might be pursuing to enhance that $1 billion cost-saving achievement, which has been quite impressive? Additionally, how should we view margins in the future as you continue to eliminate silos and integrate operating systems? Will we see continued margin improvement in the Cable segment, or will a significant portion be allocated towards your go-to-market strategy and subscriber growth in Cable and fixed wireless, as you've mentioned?

Very good question, Maher. A couple of things here that I'll unpack for you. As what you'll see from us going forward is a couple of things. Having hit the $1 billion of synergy savings doesn't mean we're taking our foot off the gas pedal in terms of continued efficiency improvements. Rather than reported in the context of $1 billion and what it grows to, you'll see that come through in expanding margins, and Glenn will provide a little more color for that in a moment. And so we continue to see opportunities in working with our vendors. There are still some systems and IT integration projects that need completion, and those will provide some additional synergies. But the other piece we're focused on are the revenue synergies. What we're seeing is very good traction in terms of enterprise or business space as particularly in the West as we bring together our wireless and now wireline offering in a complete bundled package for businesses. We see that segment of the market in terms of geography probably our fastest growing right now. So that revenue synergy is certainly one. The second piece relates to new construction. While it has slowed a bit, the pace of new construction, particularly in major markets like Vancouver and Toronto, continues to be strong. We said we would overindex in that space in the West, and our strategies there are starting to yield good results that you'll see come through in future quarters. So it's a combination of both the revenue side as well as the cost side that you'll continue to see in quarters, both through margin expansion. But also as we talk about exiting the year with top line growth in Cable, those pieces I talked about are going to be crucial to that strategy, and that's what we're focused on executing on.

And then, Maher, just filling in the remaining targets that we'll be going after. We have largely completed the people side of our cost synergy targets. By far, that's the category that we have accelerated the most. It had the benefit of driving dollar cost savings. It had the larger benefit of moving through the integration of the combined operations faster and settling people into their new responsibilities quicker. That's by far the largest piece that we've accelerated. In terms of targets that we're still looking to get at, I'll highlight a few of the Media content costs we have started on, but there's still more to factor in over the coming, I'll say, one to two years as some of it's going to take a longer effort in terms of reflecting changing viewing habits and fully rolling those in. One of the other initiatives that I had highlighted early on was the prevalence of fiber that we picked up, particularly in the West, with the acquisition of Shaw and the ability to replace microwave backhaul with fiber-connected backhaul over more of our cell towers. That is underway, but it's earlier days. As we move that through over the coming year, I'm anticipating pulling out significant costs for that microwave spectrum backhaul and replacing it with our own fiber infrastructure. I think in terms of where I anticipate margins going over time, particularly as we reverse the current negative trend on Cable revenue, I expect that we will see some additional upside on our Cable margins. We're at 56% now. I think over time, you could see that move up by somewhere in the range of another 1% or 2% as we settle in the revenues and continue to drive some of those cost savings.

Our next question comes from David Barden of Bank of America.

It's Matt sitting in for Dave. First of all, I wanted to clarify that it's great that you're ahead of pace on synergy utilization. When you provided guidance, did you anticipate being a year ahead in realizing the synergies? Should we expect that as you address the items Glenn outlined, it will be additional to what you initially contemplated when the guidance was given? Secondly, regarding fixed wireless access, I understand you may not want to provide quarterly updates on the new launch. However, could you estimate the size of the opportunity you believe it represents? Other operators view it as excess capacity and have a clear understanding of how much capacity is available and the number of subscribers needed to utilize it. Any insights you can share on this would be appreciated.

Thank you, Matt. Regarding your first question about exceeding the original pace, I have indicated since Q3 and Q4 of last year that we are pleased with the accelerated progress. I'm not surprised that we reached the $1 billion target by year-end, as this was an important goal for us, and we aimed to achieve it sooner rather than later. So, to answer your question, this outcome was anticipated and was incorporated into our guidance, which is why we have reaffirmed our guidance with this release for the year.

Regarding fixed wireless access and the market potential, we will allow customers to choose what best suits their needs based on their specific use cases. We believe we have the capacity to meet the anticipated demand, especially as we enter the second half of the year and launch network slicing, which will provide dedicated lanes for fixed wireless access users without affecting our mobile smartphone users or other enterprise applications. We are confident in our ability to satisfy demand, depending on customer selection. Additionally, we will continue to focus on selling our wireline products as well as wholesale wireline in those areas. We can now serve all homes passed with three technologies: our online cable fiber network wholesaling, coax from other providers, and fixed wireless access.

Our next question comes from Tim Casey of BMO.

Tony, could you discuss the Cable situation? I'm curious about the revenue decline of minus 3%. Is any of that related to pricing? Can you elaborate if part of that is due to price discounts by Bell, or if there are also bundle credits being offered as you provide more wireless-wireline bundles to retail customers? Also, when you mentioned the construction opportunities at West, are you referring to the completion of the last mile, specifically relating to how Shaw laid fiber to the street but not to the buildings?

Tim, I will address the second part first. Yes, that is a significant aspect of it. Additionally, there is new construction that is nearly finished, and we are actively pursuing those opportunities on a building-by-building basis. We are definitely working on bringing fiber to the suites or from the curb to the buildings. Regarding your first question about the revenue decline in Cable, several factors are involved. Despite the healthy competition in the Internet space, we are still experiencing positive ARPU growth in Internet, which highlights our ability to provide 1 gig speeds across our entire customer base. The team has been effectively upselling customers to this product. Similar to what we've seen on the Wireless side, where we've managed to move customers to higher speeds and tiers, we are witnessing the same trend in Cable. However, this is counterbalanced by the cord-cutting happening in video, which is presenting natural challenges to our revenue. It's important to note that video comes with much lower margins compared to the Internet upside. One factor to consider is that while there are synergies, the shift towards more Internet revenue compared to video revenue is contributing to our margin expansion in the Cable business. Although we aim to return to top-line growth, the decline is mainly driven by decreases in video.

Our next question comes from Stephanie Price of CIBC.

Free cash flow came in strong this quarter. Just curious if you could talk about the drivers and how we should think about the cadence of free cash flow through the year.

Thanks, Stephanie. I think it came in stronger year-over-year. I would say it's where we would expect it to be, given the guidance through the year. If you look at where our capital spend is, on an annualized basis, we're not far off from the range we've given, maybe a little bit higher in the first quarter, which is usually a little bit slower for the winter months. We've had a good construction season here through the winter. That allowed us to lean in a little more. We also had the finishing up of the Rogers Centre, year two of the renovations. That was in the first quarter. I don't read anything into the up or down on the free cash flow. I think you'll see us continue a pace and hit our guidance.

And then on Wireless churn at 1.1%, can you talk a little bit about how you see those metrics evolving over 2024 and the broader Wireless pricing strategy here?

Stephanie, regarding churn, we are experiencing an environment of elevated churn levels. In the first quarter, as many of the promotions from the fourth quarter carried over, we observed continued high churn, as mentioned by Glenn. However, when comparing year-on-year, churn decreased in Q1 as some of those promotional activities tapered off throughout the quarter. Looking ahead, we anticipate factors that will likely contribute to ongoing elevated churn. One of these is the behavior of new customers entering and exiting the Canadian market, which will be a consistent factor affecting churn rates, along with the ease of switching facilitated by eSIM technology. We identify additional elements driving increased churn. This does not raise significant concerns for us; rather, it demonstrates the competitive nature of the market. As customers have options, we thrive in that setting. We continue to evaluate churn on a net basis and focus on reducing acquisition costs, ensuring that even with higher churn, we maintain a balanced approach to achieve leading profit margins in our Wireless operations.

Our next question comes from Jerome Dubreuil of Desjardins.

The first one, we're seeing reports of potential data center sales. So maybe just provide you an opportunity with commenting on that. But some foreign telecom operators, they do see data centers as a way to offer maybe more end-to-end connectivity solutions and being an important part of digital infrastructure. If you can comment on the rationale of potential sale there. Then my second one would be on the new immigration target by the federal government. If you can comment on the dynamics you are seeing on penetration in the future just so we have a better idea of where the net adds might be trending in the future.

Thank you, Jerome. I'll start with the first point regarding recent media reports about a possible sale of our data centers. It's accurate that we are considering raising around $1 billion through asset sales, mainly in real estate. However, we are specifically looking for interest in our data center business. The segment we are looking to sell does not impact our Wireless services or the overall data aspects of those services; it is primarily focused on third-party sales within the enterprise data center sector. We have our own data center needs that we manage separately. We have initiated a process to gauge interest from potential buyers. We are proceeding cautiously with our asset sales, as the current interest rate environment has been higher and longer than we anticipated, which has affected the timing for both real estate and data center sales. I do expect to announce some asset sales this year, and I hope there will be sufficient interest in the data centers as a potential opportunity. That's all I will say on that, and now regarding the immigration numbers.

Yes. On the immigration piece, Jerome, I would say it's important to set the context. If we look at total market growth for the industry, last year, it was over 5%, which was remarkable. As we look to the first quarter, which is the initial impact of some of the curbing of foreign students to Canada, we expect market growth to be about 4.6% for Q1 would be our best estimate. As we look to the balance of the year, we continue to see likely growth, all things considered, in the 4% to 4.5% range, which continues to be extremely strong growth. I reemphasize the growth that you see in the market is really a combination of two factors. Half of it roughly is from penetration gains, and then the other half relates to the new-to-Canada category. It's important that you always look at it in that context.

Our next question comes from Batya Levi of UBS.

Just going back to the Cable revenue declines. Can you provide more color on the drivers to get to growth in Q4 from about 3% declines now and assuming that video erosion will continue? And how should we kind of think about broadband net adds for the balance of the year?

Batya, there are a few key elements in our strategy to return Cable to top-line growth, many of which I've already discussed. One focus is to improve our market share performance within our Cable footprint, and we are seeing early positive signs of that across both the East and West regions. We have a strong value proposition as we can deliver superior Internet performance to more homes than our competitors. Execution is crucial here. Additionally, we see an opportunity to grow Internet ARPU by providing at least 1 gig of speed across our entire footprint, with even higher speeds available in certain areas. As we continue enhancing our network, particularly with mid-split and high-split improvements, our product offerings will keep getting better in the short term. I won't delve into the long-term potential of DOCSIS 4 yet. We also see significant opportunity in the medium to small business enterprise sector, where we have previously been underrepresented. We anticipate double-digit growth in that segment, which has proven effective for us so far. Furthermore, there's a substantial portion of the market we haven't tapped into, specifically one-third of the homes I mentioned earlier. We’re reaching this segment through fixed wireless access and wholesale strategies. These are the main factors driving our efforts to return to growth in our Cable business. Now, what was the second part of your question?

Broadband net adds through the year.

Broadband net adds through the year. It's really a corollary to my response in the first part. Job one is to continue to focus not just on ARPU growth but, in particular, market share and penetration gains. You should expect us to continually have year-on-year growth in our net add Internet performance as we approach what we consider to be strong market share gains.

Our next question comes from Aravinda Galappatthige of Canaccord Genuity.

I have two quick questions regarding Wireless ARPU. Could you discuss the year-over-year impact due to international roaming and the price adjustments made earlier this year? Also, on the Cable side, I apologize if this number was previously mentioned, but could you repeat the pro forma revenue movement number for Q1?

I’ll start with the second point. The organic revenue growth or decline for the quarter would have been negative 3%, similar to the previous quarter. EBITDA increased by 7% on an organic basis, reflecting the benefits of cost synergies. Regarding Wireless ARPU, price increases have been a factor, but there hasn't been a significant impact from international roaming compared to the previous year. We have completed the adjustments from travel shifts following COVID, so international roaming changes have not notably affected ARPU. There was a price change implemented earlier in the year, which is part of various factors. The main influence has been our focus on enhancing our premium brand and encouraging customers to transition to our 5G services, rather than just the price increase affecting a small segment of non-contract customers.

Great. Thanks, Aravinda, and thanks for joining our call. If there's any additional questions, please reach out to the IR team. Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.