BCE Inc (BCE) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the BCE Q3 2024 results conference call.

早安，女士們先生們。歡迎參加 BCE 2024 年第三季業績電話會議。

I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Thane Fotopoulos. Please go ahead, Mr. Fotopoulos.

現在我想將會議轉交給塔恩·福托普洛斯先生。請繼續，福托普洛斯先生。

Thank you, Matthew. Good moring, everyone and thank you for joining our call.

謝謝你，馬修。大家早安，感謝您加入我們的通話。

With me here today as usual are Mirko Bibic, President and CEO of BCE; and our CFO, Curtis Millen.

像往常一樣，今天和我在一起的還有 BCE 總裁兼執行長 Mirko Bibic；以及我們的財務長柯蒂斯‧米倫 (Curtis Millen)。

You can find all of our Q3 disclosure documents on the Investor Relations page of the bce.ca website, which we posted earlier this morning.

您可以在 bce.ca 網站的投資者關係頁面上找到我們所有的第三季披露文件，該頁面是我們今天早上發布的。

Before we begin, I want to draw your attention to the Safe Harbor on slide 2, reminding you that today's slide presentation and remarks made during the call will include forward-looking statements and information and therefore are subject to risks and uncertainties. Results could differ materially. We disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements except (technical difficulty)

在我們開始之前，我想提請您注意幻燈片 2 上的安全港，提醒您今天的幻燈片演示和電話會議期間的言論將包括前瞻性陳述和信息，因此存在風險和不確定性。結果可能存在重大差異。我們不承擔任何更新前瞻性聲明的義務，除非（技術難度）

With that, over to Mirko.

就這樣，轉向米爾科。

Thank you, Thane, and good morning, everyone.

謝謝你，塔恩，大家早安。

Our operating results for the third quarter demonstrate that we're pursuing growth in a financially disciplined and responsible manner in what's arguably been the most competitively intense market we've seen. Against this backdrop, we remain focused on better quality long term margin accretive subscriber acquisition and reducing cost to help offset short term competitive pricing pressures, expected revenue losses from The Source which we've discussed in the past, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that's still in tradition -- transition, pardon me, particularly on the linear side.

我們第三季的經營業績表明，我們正在以財務紀律和負責任的方式在可以說是我們所見過的競爭最激烈的市場中追求成長。在此背景下，我們仍然專注於提高品質、長期利潤成長的訂戶獲取和降低成本，以幫助抵消短期競爭性定價壓力、我們過去討論過的 The Source 的預期收入損失、緩慢的經濟成長和媒體廣告市場仍然處於傳統狀態——過渡，請原諒我，特別是在線性方面。

This focus on disciplined customer growth and ongoing efforts to drive cost savings across the organization through our advanced broadband networks, expanded digital and AI capabilities as well as other transformation work streams is reflected in our Q3 consolidated EBITDA growth of 2.1% and a 1.7 point margin increase to 45.6%. Notably, this was our best quarterly margin performance in over 30 years. This contributed to 10.3% higher free cash flow in Q3, which was in line with our plan as profiled in our quarterly budget at the start of the year. So really good execution by the Bell team in a highly competitive marketplace.

我們專注於嚴格的客戶成長，並透過我們先進的寬頻網路、擴展的數位和人工智慧功能以及其他轉型工作流程不斷努力推動整個組織的成本節約，這反映在我們第三季度綜合EBITDA 成長2.1% 和利潤率1.7 個百分點增加至45.6%。值得注意的是，這是我們 30 多年來最好的季度利潤率表現。這使得第三季的自由現金流增加了 10.3%，這符合我們年初季度預算中所述的計劃。在競爭激烈的市場中，貝爾團隊的執行力非常出色。

I'm going to move now to our operating results. Starting first with wireless, you'll see combined mobile phone and connected device net adds in Q3 totaled 158,412. Our objective was to strike a balance between subscriber loadings and economics. We also tried to reset rate plan pricing to more rational levels reflective of the tremendous value our services provide to customers. Despite some green shoots, those didn't stick throughout the quarter. Nevertheless, we held firm to our strategy and we chose not to match every promotional offer just for the sake of capturing a higher number of subscriber activations. Rather, as I said, our focus was on acquiring margin accretive customers and increasing our service bundle penetration given its importance as a churn management and value driver tool.

我現在要談談我們的經營績效。首先從無線開始，您將看到第三季行動電話和連接裝置的網路新增總數總計 158,412 部。我們的目標是在用戶負載和經濟效益之間取得平衡。我們還嘗試將費率計劃定價重置為更合理的水平，以反映我們的服務為客戶提供的巨大價值。儘管出現了一些新芽，但這些並沒有持續整個季度。儘管如此，我們仍然堅持我們的策略，我們選擇不為了獲得更多的訂閱者啟動而匹配每項促銷優惠。相反，正如我所說，鑑於其作為客戶流失管理和價值驅動工具的重要性，我們的重點是獲取利潤增值客戶並提高我們的服務捆綁滲透率。

In fact, all of our new postpaid customer net activations this quarter were on the main Bell brand. Moreover, in an effort to strike a better pricing tier balance between our various brands, we stopped selling prepaid service on Virgin Plus at the end of September, and we plan to discontinue Bell branded prepaid service in Q4.

事實上，本季我們所有新的後付費客戶網路活化都是在貝爾主品牌上進行的。此外，為了在各個品牌之間取得更好的定價層平衡，我們於 9 月底停止在 Virgin Plus 上銷售預付費服務，並計劃在第四季度停止貝爾品牌的預付費服務。

Now on to residential wireline, not surprisingly, fiber continues to anchor new internet subscriber growth and drive higher multi-product penetration contributing to a 15% increase in households subscribing to mobility and internet service where we have fiber. Notably, internet revenue growth improved to around 5% which represents our best quarterly results since Q2 of 2023 and it's a direct reflection again of our balanced approach to broadband market share growth and disciplined pricing.

現在就住宅有線而言，毫不奇怪，光纖繼續推動新的網路用戶成長，並推動更高的多產品滲透率，使使用光纖的行動和網路服務訂閱家庭增加 15%。值得注意的是，網路收入成長提高至 5% 左右，這是我們自 2023 年第二季以來最好的季度業績，這再次直接反映了我們對寬頻市場份額成長和嚴格定價的平衡方法。

Now I'll talk about media. Digital revenues were up 19% over last year and that helped to offset the secular pressures in traditional media platforms and digital network comprises 42% of total media revenues. This result was driven by continued growth in products such as Crave with ads and connected TV, strong client demand for Bell Media's advanced advertising solutions and ongoing direct to consumer streaming growth. And investments to sustain the strategic shift to digital are continuing with the availability of TSN and RDS content on Amazon Prime Video channels in Canada and the expansion of Bell Media's existing licensing agreement with Warner Brothers Discovery announced in 2023 to extend Crave for multiple years as the exclusive home of HBO and of Max content.

現在我要談談媒體。數位營收比去年成長19%，有助於抵銷傳統媒體平台的長期壓力，數位網路佔媒體總收入的42%。這項結果的推動因素包括 Crave 廣告和連網電視等產品的持續成長、客戶對 Bell Media 先進廣告解決方案的強勁需求以及直接面向消費者的串流媒體持續成長。隨著加拿大Amazon Prime Video 頻道上提供TSN 和RDS 內容，以及貝爾媒體(Bell Media) 與華納兄弟探索頻道(Warner Brothers Discovery) 於2023 年宣布擴大現有許可協議，以將Crave 的有效期延長多年，維持向數位化策略轉型的投資仍在繼續。

Bell Media also recently secured a content and licensing agreement with NBCUniversal to bring USA Network and Oxygen True Crime cable channels to Canada for the first time. Discovery Canada will be rebranded as USA Network at the start of the year -- of next year. As for our transformation initiatives, we're making significant progress modernizing how we operate across the company by leveraging technology, automation and simplification in a way that's more agile, digital and lower cost and all this is designed to drive significant CapEx and operating cost efficiencies. Although these initiatives have required upfront investments and more investments will be made as we further accelerate this transformation, we're already seeing the benefit in terms of CapEx efficiencies.

Bell Media 最近也與 NBCUniversal 簽訂了內容和授權協議，首次將 USA Network 和 Oxygen True Crime 有線頻道引入加拿大。Discovery Canada 將於明年年初更名為 USA Network。至於我們的轉型計劃，我們透過以更敏捷、數位化和更低成本的方式利用技術、自動化和簡化，在整個公司的營運方式現代化方面取得了重大進展，所有這些都是為了顯著提高資本支出和營運成本效率。儘管這些舉措需要前期投資，並且隨著我們進一步加速這項轉型，我們將進行更多投資，但我們已經看到了資本支出效率的好處。

In fact, we're ahead of plan in decreasing CapEx by more than $1 billion over the 2024-2025 time frame including a year to date reduction this year of more than $600 million while working towards our fiber build target of 8.3 million locations by the end of next year. However, as we move more workloads to the cloud, it will result in a shift of dollars from CapEx to OpEx that will moderate margin expansion in the short term but this will be meaningfully cash cost accretive longer term. And we remain on track to deliver in year savings of approximately $200 million from workforce reductions announced in February.

事實上，我們提前計劃在 2024 年至 2025 年期間將資本支出減少超過 10 億美元，其中今年迄今減少了超過 6 億美元，同時努力實現到 2024 年 830 萬個地點的光纖建設目標。 。然而，隨著我們將更多的工作負載轉移到雲端，這將導致資金從資本支出轉向營運支出，這將在短期內緩和利潤擴張，但從長遠來看，這將顯著增加現金成本。我們仍有望透過 2 月宣布的裁員計畫實現年內節省約 2 億美元的目標。

These are just a few examples of the initiatives and work streams currently underway at Bell that are contributing to better efficiencies and lower costs. We also continue to advance our transformation to a tech services leader in the B2B space with FX Innovation's acquisition last month of HGC Technologies, a leading service now managed services provider based in Montreal. This investment builds on our purchase in July of CloudKettle based in Halifax to further strengthen FXI's expertise in process automation, cloud technologies and digital transformation.

這些只是貝爾目前正在進行的措施和工作流程的幾個例子，這些措施和工作流程有助於提高效率和降低成本。我們也持續推動向 B2B 領域技術服務領導者的轉型，FX Innovation 上個月收購了 HGC Technologies（位於蒙特婁的領先服務託管服務供應商）。這項投資建立在我們 7 月收購位於哈利法克斯的 CloudKettle 的基礎上，旨在進一步加強 FXI 在流程自動化、雲端技術和數位轉型方面的專業知識。

And in line with our strategic goal to become a cybersecurity managed services leader in Canada and North America, complementing our acquisition of tech services company, Stratejm in July, we expanded our relationship with Palo Alto Networks in a first of its kind partnership to offer their full suite of managed security services. This agreement directly supports our Bell business markets growth agenda and is already evident in key wins with some of our largest Canadian customers. Against the backdrop of these investments, on Monday, we announced our acquisition of Ziply Fiber, the largest broadband and fiber internet provider in the US Pacific Northwest. The acquisition marks a bold milestone in Bell's history. It's a significant investment that will help us take our competitive edge beyond Canada and it will enhance long term growth for Bell by providing us with a foothold in the underpenetrated US fiber market while increasing our scale, diversifying our operating footprint and establishing expansion opportunities.

根據我們成為加拿大和北美網路安全託管服務領導者的策略目標，補充我們7 月收購的技術服務公司Stratejm，我們擴大了與Palo Alto Networks 的關係，這是第一個此類合作夥伴關係，以提供他們的服務。該協議直接支持我們的貝爾業務市場成長議程，並且已經在我們與一些最大的加拿大客戶的關鍵勝利中得到體現。在這些投資的背景下，週一，我們宣布收購美國太平洋西北地區最大的寬頻和光纖網路供應商 Ziply Fiber。此次收購標誌著貝爾歷史上的大膽里程碑。這是一項重大投資，將幫助我們在加拿大以外的地區取得競爭優勢，並為我們在滲透不足的美國光纖市場提供立足點，同時擴大我們的規模、實現業務多元化並建立擴張機會，從而增強貝爾的長期成長。

The acquisition is immediately accretive to cash flow from operations, enhancing BCE's financial growth profile. We expect the transaction to be free cash flow accretive post the completion of Ziply Fiber's planned fiber buildout to more (technical difficulty) than 3 million locations. All in, it will help to support our long term capital markets objectives. We intend to finance a transaction [loan], the pending sale of MLSE.

此次收購立即增加了營運現金流，增強了 BCE 的財務成長狀況。我們預計，在 Ziply Fiber 計劃的光纖建設（技術難度）超過 300 萬個地點完成後，該交易將增加自由現金流。總而言之，它將有助於支持我們的長期資本市場目標。我們打算為一筆交易[貸款]提供資金，即待出售的 MLSE。

Effectively, what we're doing is monetizing an asset with no impact on BCE's operating results to fund the acquisition of an asset aligned with our core business and our fiber growth strategy, which is again, very strategic growth focused redeployment of capital and one that will be accretive to free cash flow in the long term. Importantly, as part of the condition of sale of MLSE, as you all know, Bell Media secured access to content rights for the Maple Leafs and Raptors for the next 20 years and that will solidify TSN's position as Canada's sports leader. The pending sale of Northwestel that we announced earlier this year is another clear indication that we'll take seriously any opportunity to monetize assets where and when it makes sense.

實際上，我們正​​在做的是將一項對BCE 經營業績沒有影響的資產貨幣化，為收購與我們的核心業務和纖維增長戰略相一致的資產提供資金，這又是非常注重戰略增長的資本重新部署，從長遠來看，這將增加自由現金流。重要的是，眾所周知，作為 MLSE 出售條件的一部分，貝爾媒體獲得了楓葉隊和猛龍隊未來 20 年的內容版權，這將鞏固 TSN 作為加拿大體育領導者的地位。我們今年稍早宣布的西北電信待售事項是另一個明確的跡象，表明我們將認真對待任何合理的時間和地點將資產貨幣化的機會。

I'm turning now to slide 5 and reviewing with you some key operating metrics for the quarter, again, starting first with wireless. We added 102,196 new net mobile phone subscribers in Q3, down from 167,000 in Q3 of last year. Although postpaid net adds of 33,111 were down compared to an exceptionally strong prior year, consistent with our operating strategy to focus on margin accretive subscriber adds and disciplined device subsidization like I said at the beginning, all new customers were on our main Bell brand. While postpaid churn this quarter was up against the backdrop of elevated competitive activity relative to seasonal trends and higher than we'd like, it did represent a third consecutive quarter of deceleration in the year over year rate of increase.

我現在翻到第 5 張投影片，再次與您一起回顧本季的一些關鍵營運指標，首先從無線開始。第三季我們新增 102,196 名手機淨用戶，低於去年第三季的 167,000 名。儘管後付費用戶淨增加量為33,111 人，與前一年的異常強勁相比有所下降，但正如我一開始所說，與我們專注於增加利潤的用戶增加和嚴格的設備補貼的運營戰略一致，所有新客戶都在我們的主要貝爾品牌上。雖然本季後付費客戶流失率是在競爭活動相對季節性趨勢加劇的背景下出現的，並且高於我們的預期，但它確實代表了同比增長率連續第三個季度放緩。

So we're moving in the right direction when it comes to churn. Prepaid net adds were up considerably versus last year, increasing to 69,085. This represents our best quarterly results since Q3 2019 and it's a direct reflection of the strategy to increasingly address the flanker in newcomer market with our prepaid brand.

因此，在客戶流失方面，我們正朝著正確的方向前進。預付費淨增加量較去年大幅增加，增至 69,085 名。這是我們自 2019 年第三季以來最好的季度業績，也是我們透過預付費品牌持續應對新市場側翼市場策略的直接體現。

To close off on wireless, ARPU was down 3.4%. As expected, this result represents the accumulation of excessive rate plan discounting and promotional offer intensity over the past year. Until prices stabilize, we'll continue to focus our offer -- our efforts on delivering enhanced customer experiences and value and on improving wireless ARPU and margins. Although we believe that Q3 should be the peak quarter of decline, the magnitude and timing of ARPU recovery will depend on how aggressive Black Friday and holiday promotions will be this year.

由於無線業務的關閉，每位用戶平均收入 (ARPU) 下降了 3.4%。正如預期，這一結果代表了過去一年中過度的費率計劃折扣和促銷優惠強度的累積。在價格穩定之前，我們將繼續專注於提供增強的客戶體驗和價值以及提高無線 ARPU 和利潤。儘管我們認為第三季度應該是下降的高峰季度，但 ARPU 恢復的幅度和時間將取決於今年黑色星期五和假期促銷的力度。

Not to wireline. In internet, we delivered 42,415 new net retail subs. Although the environment remains ultra competitive and overall industry growth is slowing, we continue to capture the majority of new growth in our markets because of our superior fiber internet service offering. We also added around 9,200 new net IPTV subscribers.

不是有線的。網路方面，新增淨零售用戶42,415戶。儘管環境仍然競爭激烈且整體行業成長正在放緩，但由於我們提供卓越的光纖互聯網服務，我們繼續抓住市場中的大部分新增長。我們也新增了約 9,200 名 IPTV 淨用戶。

And lastly, I'll turn to Bell Media. Total advertising revenue increased for a third consecutive quarter on the strength of digital, the strength of live sports and our acquisition of OUTEDGE that we completed in June. Crave subscribers were up an impressive 12% to more than 3.4 million driven by a 34% increase in direct to consumer streaming subscribers. TSN and RDS digital subscriptions collectively grew subscribers by 45%, thanks to premium sports content including the Presidents Cup, Euro Cup soccer, COPA América, and the Summer Olympics, which helped TSN and RDS retain their number one rankings in Q3 yet again.

最後，我要談談貝爾媒體。由於數位化、體育直播以及我們於 6 月完成的 OUTEDGE 的收購，總廣告收入連續第三個季度增長。由於直接面向消費者的串流訂閱者成長了 34%，Crave 訂閱者成長了 12%，達到超過 340 萬。由於總統盃、歐洲盃足球、美洲盃和夏季奧運等優質體育內容，TSN 和 RDS 數位訂閱用戶總數增加了 45%，這幫助 TSN 和 RDS 在第三季再次保持第一的排名。

Bell Media once again led all competitors in the French language entertainment and pay specialty market while Noovo continued to grow market share with primetime audiences increasing 4% compared to the same fall to date period last year. In summary, the Bell team continues to consistently execute our plan with discipline in the most competitive market we've seen in years to grow subscribers responsibly, to serve our customers with the best pure fiber and mobile 5G network and of course, to reduce cost to align with the revenue profiles of each of our segments.

Bell Media 再次領先法語娛樂和付費專業市場的所有競爭對手，而 Noovo 的市佔率持續成長，黃金時段觀眾較去年同期成長了 4%。總而言之，貝爾團隊繼續在我們多年來看到的競爭最激烈的市場中始終如一地執行我們的計劃，以負責任的方式增加用戶，為我們的客戶提供最好的純光纖和移動5G 網絡，當然還有降低成本與我們每個部門的收入狀況保持一致。

Due to top line pressures in the first three quarters of the year stemming mainly from lower than anticipated product sales which Curtis will -- at the moment, we're revising BCE revenue guidance for 2024 and again, Curtis will cover that with you in a second.

由於今年前三個季度的營收壓力主要源自於產品銷售低於預期，Curtis 目前正在修訂 2024 年 BCE 收入指引，Curtis 將在第二。

On that, I'll turn the call over to him. Thanks for the time, everyone, and looking forward to the Q&A after Curtis presents.

對此，我會將電話轉給他。感謝大家抽空，期待柯蒂斯演講後的問答。

Great. Thank you, Mirko, and good morning, everyone.

偉大的。謝謝米爾科，大家早安。

I'll begin on slide 7 with BCE's consolidated financial results. We delivered positive service revenue growth for a second straight quarter on the back of stronger internet revenue growth as well as the continued successful execution of our B2B tech services and digital first media strategies. Total revenue was down 1.8%. Similar to the last quarter, this was due to a 14.3% decrease in low margin wireless and wireline product sales which included the loss of revenue from The Source store closures and conversions to Best Buy Express.

我將從投影片 7 開始介紹 BCE 的綜合財務表現。由於網路收入成長強勁以及 B2B 技術服務和數位優先媒體策略的持續成功執行，我們的服務收入連續第二季實現正成長。總收入下降 1.8%。與上一季類似，這是由於低利潤無線和有線產品銷售下降了 14.3%，其中包括 The Source 商店關閉和轉向百思買快遞的收入損失。

Our positive service revenue result was achieved despite an intensely competitive pricing environment, particularly in wireless, where we intentionally slowed down subscriber acquisition to strike a better balance between volume growth and economics so as to not lock in customers on low ARPU contracts. Against this competitive backdrop, the transformation investments Mirko described are helping to drive very meaningful OpEx savings as evidenced by 4.8% reduction in operating costs this quarter. This drove a 1.7 point improvement in margin to 45.6% which bears repeating was our best result in well over 30 years.

儘管定價環境競爭激烈，特別是在無線領域，我們仍取得了積極的服務收入成果，我們故意放慢了用戶獲取速度，以在銷售增長和經濟性之間取得更好的平衡，以免將客戶鎖定在低ARPU 合約上。在這種競爭背景下，Mirko 所描述的轉型投資有助於節省非常有意義的營運支出，本季營運成本降低 4.8% 就證明了這一點。這使得利潤率提高了 1.7 個百分點，達到 45.6%，這是我們 30 多年來的最佳成績。

Net earnings and statutory EPS declined in Q3. This resulted from approximately $2.1 billion in non-cash asset impairment charges mainly for Bell Media's TV and radio properties to reflect continued market related pressures on the traditional advertising ecosystem. Advertising EPS was down $0.06 versus last year. This was due to higher financing costs and depreciation and amortization expense as profiled in our plan at the beginning of the year. Consistent with our plan to reduce capital spending by at least $500 million in 2024, CapEx was down $205 million in Q3 bringing year to date CapEx savings to more than $600 million. This helped drive a 10.3% increase in free cash flow for Q3.

第三季淨利和法定每股收益下降。這是由於貝爾媒體的電視和廣播資產產生了約 21 億美元的非現金資產減損費用，以反映傳統廣告生態系統面臨的持續市場相關壓力。廣告每股收益比去年下降 0.06 美元。這是由於我們年初計劃中所描述的融資成本以及折舊和攤提費用較高。根據我們在 2024 年減少至少 5 億美元資本支出的計劃，第三季資本支出減少了 2.05 億美元，使年初至今的資本支出節省超過 6 億美元。這有助於推動第三季自由現金流成長 10.3%。

The greater year to date CapEx savings can be attributed to the realization of efficiencies from our prior investments in digital transformation initiatives. Importantly, these efficiencies will enable us to operate at lower capital intensity levels in future years while continuing to invest in key strategic areas.

今年迄今為止，資本支出節省較多可歸因於我們先前對數位轉型計畫的投資提高了效率。重要的是，這些效率將使我們能夠在未來幾年以較低的資本密集度水準運營，同時繼續投資關鍵策略領域。

Turning the Bell CTS on slide 8, product revenue was down notably this quarter, decreasing by $114 million compared to Q3 2023. More than half of the year over year decline was due to lower sales at The Source that I just referenced. The remainder can be attributed to lower mobile phone transaction volumes which are down 25% and the timing of mobile and data equipment sales to large enterprise clients, particularly in the government sector. Importantly, the EBITDA impact was not material as these product revenues are very low margin. Internet revenue is up approximately 5% representing our best quarterly growth rate since Q2 2023, an encouraging result that shows we are striking a responsible balance between broadband market share and subscriber profitability.

打開幻燈片 8 上的貝爾 CTS，本季產品收入顯著下降，與 2023 年第三季相比減少了 1.14 億美元。年比下降一半以上是由於我剛才提到的 The Source 銷售額下降。其餘部分可歸因於手機交易量下降 25%，以及向大型企業客戶（尤其是政府部門）銷售行動和數據設備的時機。重要的是，EBITDA 的影響並不重大，因為這些產品的營收利潤率非常低。網路收入成長了約 5%，這是我們自 2023 年第二季以來的最佳季度成長率，這一令人鼓舞的結果表明我們正在寬頻市場份額和用戶盈利能力之間實現負責任的平衡。

The decrease in wireless service revenue this quarter was largely expected given the sustained price compression over the past year which has had a significant cumulative impact on ARPU. This quarter's performance also reflects a step up in data overage decline and lower outbound roaming revenue as customers continue to move to larger capacity in North American data plans. We also saw continued strength in business solutions where revenue grew 10% over last year as our enterprise strategy further progresses. This was driven by higher sales of cloud-based computing, managed automation and security services, as well as our recent acquisitions of Stratejm and CloudKettle which complement our acquisition of FX Innovation last year.

鑑於過去一年持續的價格壓縮對 ARPU 產生了重大的累積影響，本季無線服務收入的下降在很大程度上是預料之中的。本季的業績也反映出，隨著客戶持續轉向北美數據計畫的更大容量，數據超額下降幅度加大，出站漫遊收入下降。我們也看到業務解決方案持續強勁，隨著我們企業策略的進一步進展，營收比去年成長了 10%。這是由於基於雲端的運算、管理自動化和安全服務的銷售額增加，以及我們最近收購的Stratejm和CloudKettle（這補充了我們去年收購的FX Innovation）推動的。

In fact, when excluding the favorable impact of those acquisitions, business solutions revenue still grew a strong 7% organically. Bell's CTS EBITDA was positive growing by 0.2% to yield a strong margin of 46.7%. That's 160 point increase over last year and the direct result of a significant and ongoing focus on cost management, as evidenced by a 6.2% reduction in operating costs this quarter.

事實上，在排除這些收購的有利影響時，業務解決方案收入仍然強勁地有機成長了 7%。貝爾的 CTS EBITDA 正成長 0.2%，利潤率高達 46.7%。這比去年增加了 160 個百分點，這是持續關注成本管理的直接結果，本季營運成本下降了 6.2%。

Over to Bell Media on slide 9. Strong financial performance marked by a second consecutive quarter of revenue and EBITDA growth. Total advertising revenue is up 7.9% driven by stronger TV sports specialty performance, continued world class digital advertising growth and our acquisition of OUTEDGE Media. Subscriber revenue growth of 13.5% reflected retroactive adjustments related to contract renewals with certain Canadian TV distributors as well as continued D2C Crave and sports streaming growth.

請前往幻燈片 9 上的貝爾媒體。強勁的財務業績以連續第二季的營收和 EBITDA 成長為標誌。由於更強勁的電視體育專業表現、持續的世界級數位廣告成長以及我們對 OUTEDGE Media 的收購，總廣告收入成長了 7.9%。用戶收入成長 13.5%，反映出與某些加拿大電視發行商續約合約相關的追溯調整，以及 D2C Crave 和體育串流媒體的持續成長。

Consistent with the increase in revenue, Media EBITDA was up 25.1% driving a substantial 3.9 point increase in margin to 32.5%. Even when normalizing for the retroactive revenue adjustments, Bell Media EBITDA was up a very solid 5% this quarter.

與營收成長一致，Media EBITDA 成長了 25.1%，帶動利潤率大幅成長 3.9 個百分點，達到 32.5%。即使在追溯收入調整正常化的情況下，貝爾媒體 EBITDA 本季仍大幅成長 5%。

Turning to slide 10. Balance sheet remains quite well positioned with $4.4 billion of available liquidity, a well structured debt maturity schedule and a strong solvency surplus of $4.1 billion for all BCE defined benefit pension plans. At 3.7 times adjusted EBITDA, our debt leverage ratio is essentially unchanged compared to Q2 even with the recent acquisitions of OUTEDGE, Stratejm and CloudKettle. Importantly, the funding for a planned acquisition of Ziply Fiber is being structured to maintain our net debt leverage ratio relatively unchanged and our credit ratings investment grade. No incremental debt will be required to finance this transaction. Rather we intend to fund with MLSE net sale proceeds totaling $4.2 billion together with cash generated from implementation of a discounted treasury DRP program that is commencing with BCE's Q4 2024 common share dividend payment.

轉到投影片 10。資產負債表仍然處於良好狀態，所有 BCE 固定福利退休金計劃擁有 44 億美元的可用流動性、結構良好的債務到期時間表以及 41 億美元的強大償付能力盈餘。調整後 EBITDA 為 3.7 倍，即使最近收購了 OUTEDGE、Stratejm 和 CloudKettle，我們的債務槓桿率與第二季度相比基本沒有變化。重要的是，計劃收購 Ziply Fiber 的資金結構是為了維持我們的淨債務槓桿率相對不變和我們的信用評級投資等級。本次交易不需要增量債務來融資。相反，我們打算用 MLSE 淨出售收益總計 42 億美元以及從 BCE 2024 年第四季度普通股股息支付開始實施貼現國庫 DRP 計劃產生的現金提供資金。

In the event that Ziply Fiber acquisition is completed before sale of MLSE, we have secured a fully committed delayed-draw term loan facility to meet the cash funding requirement at closing.

如果 Ziply Fiber 收購在出售 MLSE 之前完成，我們將獲得全額承諾的延遲提取定期貸款融資，以滿足交易結束時的現金融資需求。

Lastly, on slide 11, as you read in our press release this morning, we are revising our revenue guidance target for 2024. As I referenced earlier, Bell's CTS product revenues are down approximately $200 million year to date which is substantially more than anticipated at the start of the year. Moreover, we have been facing sustained wireless price compression over the past year which has increasingly put pressure on ARPU and wireless service revenue growth. As a result of these near term top line pressures, we now expect total BCE revenue to decline by approximately 1.5% this year, down from our previous expectation of 0% to 4% growth.

最後，在投影片 11 上，正如您在今天早上的新聞稿中看到的那樣，我們正在修改 2024 年的收入指引目標。正如我之前提到的，今年迄今為止，貝爾的 CTS 產品收入減少了約 2 億美元，大大超出了年初的預期。此外，過去一年我們面臨持續的無線價格壓縮，這對 ARPU 和無線服務收入成長造成越來越大的壓力。由於這些近期收入壓力，我們現在預計今年 BCE 總收入將下降約 1.5%，低於我們先前預期的 0% 至 4% 成長。

Importantly, all other financial guidance targets for 2024 as announced in February remain unchanged. We believe this revised revenue outlook is appropriate and responsible given the current competitive and economic environments that we're currently navigating and provides an appropriate amount of flexibility to make the right business decisions for the long term health of the company.

重要的是，2 月宣布的 2024 年所有其他財務指導目標保持不變。我們認為，考慮到我們目前所處的競爭和經濟環境，修訂後的收入前景是適當且負責任的，並提供了適當的靈活性，可以為公司的長期健康做出正確的業務決策。

On that, I'll now hand the call back to Thane and the operator to begin Q&A.

對此，我現在將把電話轉回給 Thane 和接線員以開始問答。

Great. Thanks, Curtis.

偉大的。謝謝，柯蒂斯。

So before we start, so we can get to everybody in the queue, I would ask to please limit yourselves to one question and a brief follow up.

因此，在我們開始之前，為了讓我們能夠聯繫到隊列中的每個人，我想請大家只提出一個問題並進行簡短的跟進。

So with that, Matthew, we are ready to take our first question.

因此，馬修，我們準備好回答第一個問題了。

Sebastiano Petti, JPMorgan.

塞巴斯蒂亞諾·佩蒂，摩根大通。

Mirko, obviously, Ziply's EBITDA pro forma, for Ziply, that would only constitute, call it, low to mid single digit percentage of BCE's current EBITDA. As you think about the BCE's new let's call it a US-based strategy, how should we gauge the company's appetite for further M&A in the US long term? Yeah, how meaningful of a contribution could this US fiber strategy be to consolidated financials over, call it, the medium, long term? It may be said differently, is this a one-off opportunity to pursue high growth assets that just happen to be in the US or do you think the US become -- could become a more meaningful driver of BCE's growth algorithm over time?

Mirko 顯然是 Ziply 的 EBITDA 形式，對於 Ziply 來說，這只會構成 BCE 目前 EBITDA 的中低個位數百分比。當您考慮 BCE 的新策略（我們稱之為基於美國的策略）時，我們應該如何衡量該公司在美國長期進一步併購的意願？是的，從中長期來看，美國纖維策略對合併財務狀況有何意義？換句話說，這是追求恰好在美國的高成長資產的一次性機會，還是您認為隨著時間的推移，美國可能成為 BCE 成長演算法更有意義的驅動力？

So maybe I'll start by basic first principles and then work down to the specific question. If you (inaudible) the highest level fiber -- fibers at the core of what we do, we've turned ourselves into a fiber first company. Fiber is a superior technology to anything else that's out there and is -- sorry about that, if you could hear me, I'll start again, Sebastiano. I was partially on mute there. We're a fiber first company and fibers do and fiber is the superior technology compared to anything else out there. So we start with that premise and you can -- we've invested billions in Canada on becoming a fiber first company and you can see it quarter after quarter the performance that we're delivering including this most recent quarter that we're reporting on in a very, very competitive environment.

因此，也許我會從基本的首要原則開始，然後再討論具體問題。如果你（聽不清楚）最高等級的纖維——纖維是我們工作的核心，那麼我們已經把自己變成了一家纖維優先的公司。光纖是一種優於任何其他技術的技術，很抱歉，如果你能聽到我的聲音，我會重新開始，塞巴斯蒂亞諾。我在那裡部分處於靜音狀態。我們是一家以纖維為先的公司，纖維也是如此，與其他任何技術相比，纖維是最先進的技術。因此，我們從這個前提開始，您可以——我們在加拿大投資了數十億美元，成為一家以光纖為先的公司，您可以每個季度看到我們所提供的業績，包括我們報告的最近一個季度在一個非常非常競爭的環境。

We're generating a 5% internet revenue growth and positive ARPU. So it keeps winning. And then if you -- based on that, becoming a -- having been and becoming -- having become (technical difficulty) you kind of look at where the growth opportunities are. And when we looked at the US, like I said on Monday, we're in Canada in terms of how much fiber has been built. And in terms of the value being delivered to customers here on a price and (technical difficulty) value specifically, there is a high growth potential within the asset itself, particularly in those kind of high GDP attractive customer kind of states.

我們的網路收入成長了 5%，並且 ARPU 為正值。所以一直贏。然後，如果你——基於此，成為——已經成為——已經成為（技術難度），你就會看看成長機會在哪裡。當我們看看美國時，就像我周一所說的那樣，就已建成的光纖數量而言，我們處於加拿大的水平。就以價格和（技術難度）價值向客戶交付的價值而言，資產本身俱有很高的成長潛力，特別是在那些對 GDP 具有高吸引力的客戶類型的州。

But it also had the Ziply management (technical difficulty) and their IT stack. So as we look at other opportunities, if other opportunities come up, we'll take a look and what Ziply Fiber has built would allow us if there were other opportunities that came along to include those within the Ziply Fiber platform and be able to kind of consolidate and merge other assets into what Ziply Fiber has built in an elegant way. So I think all to say, if there are other opportunities where we can turbocharge the already high Ziply Fiber growth, we'll take a look.

但它也有 Ziply 管理（技術難度）及其 IT 堆疊。因此，當我們尋找其他機會時，如果出現其他機會，我們會看看 Ziply Fiber 所建立的內容是否能讓我們看到其他機會，包括 Ziply Fiber 平台中的機會，並能夠將其他資產整合並合併到Ziply Fiber 以優雅的方式建構的資產中。所以我認為總而言之，如果還有其他機會可以推動 Ziply Fiber 已經很高的成長，我們會考慮一下。

Vince Valentini, TD Securities.

文斯·瓦倫蒂尼，道明證券。

Can I come back to your core business and try to clarify a couple of things? The, first of all, they write down on TPIA subs, so 106,000 customers in your footprint are currently writing on cable TPIAs. So you have to shut down that business. And do you have to turn off the customers or you just don't count them in your sub base anymore? And a second part of that, would you not fully intend to try to just migrate those to your own network? And as you have a network in -- to every home in these regions? I'm a little surprised why you need to take the subscriber right down there and what's going to happen to these customers going forward.

我可以回到你的核心業務並嘗試澄清一些事情嗎？首先，他們在 TPIA 子系統上進行記錄，因此您所在地區目前有 106,000 名客戶在有線 TPIA 上進行記錄。所以你必須關閉該業務。您是否必須關閉客戶，或者您不再將他們計入您的子基地？第二部分，您是否完全打算嘗試將這些遷移到您自己的網路？當您在這些地區的每個家庭都有一個網路時？我有點驚訝為什麼你需要把訂戶帶到那裡，以及這些客戶未來會發生什麼事。

Similar on the prepaid, if you can just clarify if you take out 78,000 for Virgin prepaid, I assume you'll take another sub write down in Q4 if you're going to shut down the Bell prepaid. Can you just level set us on what that does to ARPU? I assume that should mean that ARPU mathematically will get a little bit better in Q4 and Q1.

與預付費類似，如果你能澄清一下你是否為維珍預付費拿出了 78,000 美元，我想如果你要關閉貝爾預付費，你會在第四季度再進行一次減記。您能否向我們介紹一下這對 ARPU 有何影響？我認為這應該意味著 ARPU 在數學上會在第四季和第一季變得更好。

So I'll start first on the TPI resell business and Curtis will cover the wireless question. Vince, good morning. Look, on the resale business, the reseller business, it's the ruling from the CRTC essentially puts a stop to that resale business. Sothe reason for the subscriber modification is that we can no longer add subscribers on TPIA as part of that collection of brands that we were operating distributed, et cetera.

因此，我將首先討論 TPI 轉售業務，Curtis 將討論無線問題。文斯，早安。看，在轉售業務、轉售業務方面，CRTC 的裁決基本上停止了轉售業務。因此，訂戶修改的原因是我們無法再在 TPIA 上新增訂戶作為我們分散式營運的品牌集合的一部分，等等。

The 106,000 customers that that are ours today under those various brands that operate on that are served off of the cable network. We can continue to serve them for as long as they choose to remain our subscribers on those networks because they are grandfathered, but we cannot add new subscribers on TPIA. So that business is essentially shut down. Now on the migration from cable to fiber, that was the business. One of the significant elements of the business case of those acquisitions all along was migrating where we have fiber footprint, migrating those subscribers to fiber and we've done quite a bit of that already.

今天，我們的 106,000 名客戶以各種品牌運營，並透過有線網路提供服務。只要他們選擇保留我們在這些網路上的訂閱者，我們就可以繼續為他們提供服務，因為他們是祖父的，但我們無法在 TPIA 上新增訂閱者。因此該業務基本上已關閉。現在從電纜遷移到光纖，這就是業務。這些收購的業務案例的重要組成部分之一就是遷移到我們擁有光纖足跡的地方，將這些用戶遷移到光纖，我們已經做了很多這樣的事情。

So I don't have off the top of my head how many of the 106,000 customers are also in fiber footprint? But for those that are, we'll continue to migrate them and where we don't have fiber, we're going to keep them on TPIA for as long as they remain our subscribers. So we're our customers. So that's the answer on that one, Vince and I'll turn it over to Curtis for wireless.

所以我不知道 106,000 名客戶中有多少也使用光纖足跡？但對於那些有光纖的用戶，我們將繼續遷移它們，而在沒有光纖的地方，只要他們仍然是我們的訂戶，我們就會將他們保留在 TPIA 上。所以我們是我們的客戶。這就是這個問題的答案，文斯和我將把它交給柯蒂斯進行無線處理。

Then Vince on the second one, you're right. So in terms of the prepaid stop, sell on Bell, so we'll stop selling that service on Bell. And you're right, it's a very small impact, but there will be a small benefit to ARPU.

然後文斯談第二個，你是對的。因此，就預付費停止而言，在貝爾上銷售，因此我們將停止在貝爾上銷售該服務。你是對的，雖然影響很小，但對 ARPU 會有一點好處。

David Barden, Bank of America.

大衛巴登，美國銀行。

It's [Matt] on for Dave this morning. I just wanted to ask about the broadband business. I think you referenced in your remarks or maybe it was just in the press release, higher deactivations due to promotions and competition and so on. But there's also reference to success and increasing the percentage of subscribers who are bundled, which usually would have, I would think term benefit. So maybe if you can put those into context and maybe share what kind of churn reduction or other benefits you're getting from bundling these subscribers together, it'd be helpful.

今天早上戴夫的[馬特]上場了。我只是想問一下寬頻業務。我認為您在講話中提到了，或者可能只是在新聞稿中提到，由於促銷和競爭等原因，停用率更高。但也提到了成功和增加捆綁訂戶的比例，我認為這通常會帶來好處。因此，如果您可以將這些內容結合起來，並分享您透過將這些訂閱者捆綁在一起所獲得的減少流失率或其他好處，這會很有幫助。

So it's what you're seeing is the general market is generally slowing whether or not it's on the wire line or the wireless side. And there's a number of factors. There one is population growth, particularly newcomer growth is going to be more more sustained than what we would have thought given new policies, you know, that that has an impact on housing starts and as penetration increases in in both segments, you'll just kind of see a a slowing of market growth. Although the markets are continuing to grow in that environment, we're continue on the wireline side, continuing to take share away from our competitors or taking a larger share of new market growth. And that's because of our product superiority with, with fiber.

因此，您所看到的是，無論是有線還是無線方面，整體市場都在放緩。有很多因素。其中一個是人口成長，特別是新移民的成長將比我們想像的更持續，因為新政策會影響新房開工，而且隨著這兩個領域的滲透率增加，你就會市場成長放緩。儘管市場在這種環境下持續成長，但我們仍繼續在有線方面，繼續從競爭對手手中奪取份額，或在新市場成長中佔據更大份額。這是因為我們的產品具有纖維優勢。

And we have a particularly strong mix of customers coming in on the high speed tiers. Now, you know, it is a highly competitive pricing environment right now. Again, again, both in wireless and wireline. So you're seeing when you're talking about deactivations, you're seeing the impact of some of our competitors choosing to protect market share at any and all costs. And you're seeing that in some results of our of our peers where where particularly since you asked me about wireline, you're seeing serious compression on both revenues and ARPU on the wireline side, we're doing it differently. As you can see, our revenue growth is is growing nicely on our internet, ARPU has been growing and that's a factor of the our go to market approach. Matt, we have, you know, we, we're bloating customers in at the high, at the high speed tiers which has higher ARPU we are being very diligent in the customers we're bringing in on the premium brand. So always favoring Bell Over, over Virgin. And that applies both to internet and wireless. And of course, there's, there's the benefit of, of lower churn for customers who buy more than one product from us. So, you know, II I said it probably five times in my opening remarks. It's, it's that you got to be really disciplined in an environment like this, getting the right load on the right brands and not chasing every single load at all costs because that's not a winning formula. And, you know, we made, we made that call and I think you see it in the, in the margin expansion. And I think in the long run, it's going to help us particularly as prices stabilize because they're going to have to.

我們擁有特別強大的高速客戶群。現在，您知道，現在的定價環境競爭非常激烈。再次，再次，無論是無線還是有線。因此，當您談論停用時，您會看到我們的一些競爭對手選擇不惜一切代價保護市場份額的影響。您會看到，在我們同行的一些結果中，特別是自從您向我詢問有線業務以來，您會發現有線方面的收入和 ARPU 都受到嚴重壓縮，因此我們採取了不同的做法。正如您所看到的，我們的網路收入成長良好，ARPU 一直在成長，這是我們進入市場方法的一個因素。馬特，我們有，你知道，我們，我們在高、高速等級上增加了客戶，這些客戶的 ARPU 更高，我們對我們在高端品牌上引入的客戶非常勤奮。所以總是更喜歡貝爾，而不是維珍。這適用於互聯網和無線。當然，對於從我們這裡購買不只一種產品的客戶來說，還有一個好處就是可以降低客戶流失率。所以，你知道，我在開場白中可能說了五次。在這樣的環境中，你必須嚴格遵守紀律，在正確的品牌上獲得正確的負載，而不是不惜一切代價追逐每一個負載，因為這不是一個成功的公式。而且，你知道，我們做出了這樣的決定，我想你在利潤率擴張中看到了這一點。我認為從長遠來看，這將對我們有幫助，特別是當價格穩定時，因為他們必須這樣做。

Thanks and maybe a quick follow up if your views on convergence, I mean, there's some who view it as a more of a defensive strategy. But your, you kind of reference you your share gains and so on, like for Bell, are you looking at your converged offering as more of an offensive strategy or is it, you know, defensive to protect what you have?

謝謝，如果你對融合的看法可能會很快跟進，我的意思是，有些人認為它更像是一種防禦策略。但是你，你有點提到你的份額收益等等，就像貝爾一樣，你是否將你的融合產品視為更多的進攻性策略，或者你知道，它是防禦性的，以保護你所擁有的東西？

It's, well, we're doing, we're doing both and it's just kind of imagining the entire kind of portfolio across the board. Now, our mix of customers who buy both either the, you know, an existing wireless, adding internet or an existing internet, adding wireless or a new to be buying both at the same time that's increasing. So that mix is increasing. But if you look at our overall base, you know, the the bundled customer is still the minority of customers in terms of the overall mix.

嗯，我們正在做，我們兩者都在做，這只是全面想像整個投資組合。現在，購買現有無線網路、添加互聯網或現有互聯網、添加無線網路或新網路的客戶數量正在增加。所以這種混合正在增加。但如果你看看我們的整體基礎，你就會知道，就整體組合而言，捆綁客戶仍然是少數客戶。

All right, thank you so much.

好的，非常感謝。

Thank you. Our next question is from Drew mcreynolds from R BC capital markets. Please go ahead.

謝謝。我們的下一個問題來自 R BC 資本市場的 Drew Mcreynolds。請繼續。

Yeah, thanks very much. Good morning for, for you Marco, a big, big picture question and it just kind of ties. I think a lot of the earlier questions together. And it's, it's on the outlook for industry growth in Canada and within that, just trying to kind of gauge and even dog growth profile for BCE. You know, you, you have the revenue head headwinds this year which you characterized as transitory. They're holding the line on 2% consolidated but and doing, you know, great work on lowering the cost to serve. So the two questions is, do you see industry revenue growth in in Canada staying positive, given all the kind of maturity, competitive substitution, regulatory dynamics. And then second, are you able to within that environment and sustain positive even dog growth on the core business here in Canada?

是的，非常感謝。早安，Marco，這是一個非常非常重要的問題，它只是一種連結。我把之前的許多問題放在一起思考。它是關於加拿大行業成長的前景，並且在其中，只是試圖衡量甚至追蹤 BCE 的成長概況。你知道，今年你遇到了收入逆風，你將其描述為暫時的。他們堅持在 2% 的綜合水平上，但你知道，他們在降低服務成本方面做了很多工作。所以兩個問題是，考慮到各種成熟度、競爭替代和監管動態，您認為加拿大的產業收入成長是否保持正值。其次，您是否能夠在這種環境下維持加拿大核心業務的積極成長？

Good question. Thank you. Look on the if you break down the revenue like 22 chunks, product and service on the product side, we really have the the impact of, as Curtis said, the, the, the shutdown and conversion of The Source stores. And you know, there has been also lower phone sales generally as customers have shifted to to, to bring your own device. And in our case, so on the wireline side, we've had, you know, some wireline equipment revenue declines and there's been some timing issues on, on general, on recognizing some of the revenue on, on the wireline side. So that's a product which, which, you know, it, it's understandable and of course, it's it's low margin. So the the flow through impacts are relatively small on the, on the service side, it really is a question of, you know, needing the, the pricing to more appropriately align to the value that we are delivering to, to customers and kind of give you some some examples like we've had to, you know, we, we've been and I mentioned this, I think at the last quarter, making sure that there's proper stratification across prepaid, postpaid and across, you know, the various brands therefore, and, and also across you know, the two brands in postpaid. And I think everyone lost its way in that regard in the early part of this year. And so that's why I spent some time in my remarks talking about that. Now if you look at October, you know, October pricing was lower year over year. But better than what we saw in Q1 and Q2. And part of that is, is kind of that proper stratification across prepaid flanker, postpaid and premium postpaid. Is there going to be, you know, growth going forward? Yeah, I think so. I think it's, you know, pricing is going to need to stabilize number one and then we'll get through some of the some of the other impacts that we're seeing in our case, data overage decline. Like we've managed our data overage very, very tightly over the last 45 years. So, you know, our data overage decline has been over a much longer period of time than some of our competitors. And that was a good thing. And then we'll get through the outbound roaming pressures, but now I think I would focus on the areas of growth.

好問題。謝謝。看看，如果你將收入分解為 22 個部分，即產品方面的產品和服務，我們確實受到了柯蒂斯所說的 The Source 商店的關閉和轉換的影響。你知道，隨著客戶轉向攜帶自己的設備，手機銷售量普遍下降。就我們而言，在有線方面，您知道，一些有線設備收入下降，並且總體上在確認有線方面的一些收入方面存在一些時間問題。所以這是一個產品，你知道，這是可以理解的，當然，它的利潤率很低。因此，在服務方面，流量影響相​​對較小，這確實是一個問題，你知道，需要定價更適當地符合我們向客戶提供的價值以及某種程度的價值。做，你知道，我們，我們已經提到過這一點，我想在上個季度，確保預付費、後付費和跨，你知道，有適當的分層因此，有不同的品牌，而且您也知道，後付費的兩個品牌。我認為今年年初每個人在這方面都迷失了方向。這就是為什麼我在發言中花了一些時間談論這個問題。現在，如果你看看十月份，你就會知道，十月份的價格比去年同期較低。但比我們在第一季和第二季看到的要好。其中一部分是預付費側衛、後付費和高級後付費之間的適當分層。你知道，未來還會有成長嗎？是的，我想是的。我認為，你知道，定價需要穩定第一，然後我們將克服我們在案例中看到的一些其他影響，即數據超額下降。就像過去 45 年來我們非常非常嚴格地管理資料過剩。所以，你知道，我們的數據超額下降的時間比我們的一些競爭對手要長得多。這是一件好事。然後我們將克服出境漫遊的壓力，但現在我想我會專注於成長領域。

You know, the areas of growth are the key things. That's what you've got to do. So in our case, it's fiber five G wireless is going to grow. It's just, you know, the pricing environment's got to stabilize business solutions revenue, which is another growth factor for us, some impressive growth as as Curtis mentioned and that hardcore pivot in media from traditional broadcasting to digital, it is paying off now and you can see it in the results. So it's continue to invest in those growth areas. And I've talked about this throughout the entire year, like you've got to align your cost structure in those segments that are declining to align the cost of the revenues. And if the declining, if some assets are going perpetually decline. We might, we might shed those lines of business like some of the radio stations. So we're being pretty diligent in managing the declining segments in order to continue to kind of harvest those in a, in an accretive fashion and we're continuing to invest aggressively in the growth areas and, and Monday was an example.

要知道，成長領域是關鍵。這就是你必須要做的。因此，就我們而言，光纖 5G 無線將會成長。只是，你知道，定價環境必須穩定業務解決方案收入，這是我們的另一個成長因素，正如柯蒂斯所提到的那樣，一些令人印象深刻的成長，以及媒體從傳統廣播到數位的核心轉向，它現在正在得到回報，你可以在結果中看到它。因此，它將繼續投資於這些成長領域。我一整年都在談論這個問題，就像你必須調整那些正在下降的部門的成本結構，以調整收入成本。如果資產正在下降，如果某些資產正在永久下降。我們可能會像某些廣播電台一樣放棄這些業務。因此，我們非常努力地管理下降的細分市場，以便繼續以增值的方式收穫這些細分市場，並且我們將繼續在成長領域積極投資，週一就是一個例子。

Maher Yaghi, Scotiabank.

Maher Yaghi，豐業銀行。

I believe that stepping back from, from loading, low profit wireless subs is, is the right strategy, but it's hard to extirpate yourself from this long term because you are a national incumbent player. And if you don't stay competitive, it could lead to a material market share loss. So how should we think about this trap as you going into 2025 as we look at these issues and, and it, and you know, how can you take how, how can you solve these issues if we're not seeing a clear sign that the competition which is pressuring those prices is, is looking to change their approach to the marketplace. So I'm just because when we headed into 2024 you're seeing you know, decent wireless pricing and strong subscriber loading. And as we head into 2025 we're seeing negative pricing and declining momentum in subscriber loading, very, very low subscriber growth at all. So how can we generate revenue growth? In 2025 in, in that approach and that approach that you're the strategy that you're taking

我相信，從加載低利潤的無線潛艇中退出是正確的策略，但從長遠來看，你很難擺脫困境，因為你是一個全國性的老牌玩家。如果你不保持競爭力，可能會導致市場佔有率的重大損失。因此，當我們進入 2025 年時，當我們審視這些問題時，我們應該如何思考這個陷阱，如果我們沒有看到一個明確的跡象，你該如何解決這些問題？改變他們進入市場的方式。所以我只是因為當我們進入 2024 年時，您會看到體面的無線定價和強勁的用戶負載。當我們進入 2025 年時，我們會看到負定價和用戶載入勢頭下降，用戶成長非常非常低。那我們要如何才能實現收入成長呢？到 2025 年，在這種方法和方法中，您就是您正在採取的策略

Thanks, Maher. Simple on fiber continues to grow. So our market share is growing, our revenue is growing, our our is growing. So continue to invest there on wireless on the Bell brand.

謝謝，馬赫。Simple on Fiber 持續成長。所以我們的市佔率正在成長，我們的收入正在成長，我們的業務也在成長。因此，繼續投資貝爾品牌的無線業務。

The market share is strong and the market share is stable to growing. So we're going to continue to focus on on on the Bell brand. So I know I'm looking at the the numbers behind the numbers and like I said, all the loadings were on the premium Bell brand and that's a good thing and that sustains market share. The the significant growth that we've had on prepaid, particularly on the lucky brand for us means you bring the customers in and then we're going to have to focus on life cycle management and get the customers from -- migrate them from the prepaid their entry point over to to the premium brand over time.

市佔率強勁，市佔率穩定成長。因此，我們將繼續關注貝爾品牌。所以我知道我正在關注數字背後的數字，就像我說的，所有的負載都是優質貝爾品牌的，這是一件好事，可以維持市場份額。我們在預付費方面的顯著成長，特別是對我們來說幸運的品牌意味著您將客戶帶入，然後我們將不得不專注於生命週期管理並吸引客戶——將他們從隨著時間的推移，他們將進入點預付給高端品牌。

So that's going to sustain kind of growth and market share stability. And the third element to that is lower the cost to serve and you do those things. We will be okay. But like to, to your point or maybe underlying kind of what you're what you're saying. In your question, there is no hiding from the fact and this is an industry point that I'm going to make now, there is no hiding from the fact that the impacts of low pricing will be felt for quarters in the future, right? So you feel you feel the impacts of a low pricing environment. 6, 9 and 12 months later, there's a trailing effect on that and some are going to feel that more dramatically than others based on chasing lower creative loads at all costs.

因此，這將維持成長和市場份額的穩定。第三個要素是降低服務成本，並且你可以做這些事情。我們會沒事的。但就像你的觀點或你所說的潛在的。在你的問題中，毫無疑問，這是我現在要提出的一個行業觀點，毫無疑問，未來幾季都會感受到低定價的影響，對嗎？所以你感覺你感受到了低價環境的影響。 6、9 和 12 個月後，就會產生拖尾效應，有些人會因為不惜一切代價追求較低的創意負荷而比其他人更明顯地感受到這種效應。

Yeah, and just follow up following up on this point, when you look at the post page turn that you had in the quarter, what's your expectation about that?

是的，就這一點進行跟進，當您查看本季度的帖子翻頁次數時，您對此有何期望？

I can you solve it through proactive measures that you can take to protect your own subscribers or it's more an industry wide phenomenon that it's hard to bring down. I think it's a bit of both, Maher. I -- look, I'm not happy with where churn is. I don't think anyone would be given the numbers. However, look, I'm also pleased with the improving trajectory. So kind of a two side of that coin. It is a reality -- a marketplace reality that consumers are continuing to shop for deals given the sustained aggressive promotional offers that are in the marketplace. So because of that, you're going to see a lot of switching activity that said there are a number of tools at our disposal to minimize that churn.

我可以透過積極主動的措施來解決這個問題，您可以採取這些措施來保護自己的訂戶，或者這是一個很難消除的行業範圍內的現象。我認為兩者兼而有之，馬赫。我——聽著，我對客戶流失率不滿意。我認為沒有人會得到這些數字。然而，看，我也對改善的軌跡感到滿意。這就像硬幣的兩面。這是一個現實——一個市場現實，鑑於市場上持續積極的促銷優惠，消費者將繼續購買優惠商品。因此，您將看到大量的轉換活動，這些活動表明我們可以使用許多工具來最大程度地減少這種流失。

That's why we've seen an improving trajectory. I'm not going to outline a chapter and verse of all the things we're doing because it's competitive, but some of the things we're doing are taking hold and you're seeing the improving trajectory, which now said a couple of times and we're going to continue to focus on that to make sure that that improving trajectory continues to improve. But yeah, I mean, churn is where it's at and we got to get it lower.

這就是為什麼我們看到了改善的軌跡。我不會一章一節地概述我們正在做的所有事情，因為它具有競爭力，但我們正在做的一些事情正在紮根，你會看到改進的軌跡，現在說了一些我們將繼續關注這一點，以確保改善軌跡繼續改善。但是，是的，我的意思是，客戶流失率就是這樣，我們必須降低它。

Simon Flannery, Morgan Stanley.

西蒙‧弗蘭納裡，摩根士丹利。

I wanted to just talk about the balance sheet again if I could. Obviously, MLSE brought in a lot of or will bring in a lot of liquidity and then you're reinvesting that in Ziply getting more production on the EBITDA line and the growth line. Could you just talk about other ways to enhance the balance sheet? What are your thoughts given these deals around tower monetization, additional real estate monetization and some of these structured equity deals that some of your peers are looking at?

如果可以的話，我想再談談資產負債表。顯然，MLSE 帶來了大量或將帶來大量流動性，然後您將其再投資於 Ziply，從而在 EBITDA 線和成長線上獲得更多產量。能否談談改善資產負債表的其他方法？考慮到這些圍繞塔樓貨幣化、額外房地產貨幣化的交易以及您的一些同行正在考慮的一些結構性股權交易，您有何想法？

Yeah. Hi, Simon. Thanks for the question. So a couple of things there, one, you're right. We announced the acquisition of Ziply Fiber shortly on the heels of announcing MLSE. So ultimately, we're selling off sports asset at a great value that didn't contribute to our financials and acquiring a fast growth fiber company that will expand our footprint and drive as you say, EBITDA and free cash flow. So leverage neutral basically there, I think that's just good capital allocation. And then in terms of other asset sales, you know, we're constantly reviewing opportunities to improve our asset portfolio. And if there's an opportunity to unlock value or capture growth opportunity, then then for sure, we're going to look at it. And towers is one that you mentioned, asset securitizations, we'll look at it. It's all a matter of use of proceeds and fundamentally, is it a better allocation of capital and does it drive EBITDA and free cash flow growth for our shareholders?

是的。嗨，西蒙。謝謝你的提問。所以有幾件事，第一，你是對的。在宣布 MLSE 後不久，我們宣布收購 Ziply Fiber。因此，最終，我們以對我們的財務沒有貢獻的高價出售體育資產，並收購一家快速成長的纖維公司，這將擴大我們的足跡並推動正如你所說的 EBITDA 和自由現金流。所以槓桿基本上是中性的，我認為這只是很好的資本配置。然後就其他資產銷售而言，您知道，我們正在不斷審查改善我們的資產組合的機會。如果有機會釋放價值或抓住成長機會，那麼我們肯定會考慮它。塔樓就是你提到的資產證券化，我們會研究一下。這都是收益使用的問題，從根本上來說，這是否是更好的資本配置，是否會為我們的股東帶來 EBITDA 和自由現金流的成長？

Aravinda Galappatthige, Canaccord Genuity.

阿拉文達·加拉帕蒂格 (Aravinda Galappatthige)，Canaccord Genuity。

On the CapEx outlook, Mirko, I think that you'd sort of indicated that sort of public conference calls that there's perhaps even more downside as we kind of look at 2025 and beyond. Given the the the US venture and obviously the incremental CapEx that comes with that, do you think that there is even more room to sort of readjust the capital spend in the canadian market in light of sort of those commitments and try and perhaps sort of manage the balance sheet and free cash flow payout ratio factors. That was my first time to have a follow up.

關於資本支出前景，Mirko，我認為您在公開電話會議上表示，當我們展望 2025 年及以後時，可能會出現更多下行趨勢。考慮到美國的合資企業以及隨之而來的明顯的增量資本支出，您是否認為有更大的空間根據這些承諾重新調整加拿大市場的資本支出，並嘗試也許進行某種管理資產負債表和自由現金流支付率因素。那是我第一次進行跟進。

So on CapEx, couple of things. So for this year, we're trending to be within our guidance for CapEx, which is essentially around a 16.5% capital intensity ratio. And we've said in the past that Bell kind of as it's as it is today, Bell CapEx can get to less than 15% and that continues to be the plan. And we're doing that through a number of things, right. Number, first of all modernizing our operations, getting more efficient on delivery, moving workloads to the cloud. And it's things like implementing self installed capabilities, virtual repair contact center in the cloud. All these things that we're doing to streamline and modernize our operations and become more efficient is allow us allowing us to run our business at the lower cap with a lower CapEx budget.

關於資本支出，有幾件事。因此，今年，我們的資本支出趨向於在我們的指導範圍內，資本密集度基本上約為 16.5%。我們過去曾說過，貝爾就像今天一樣，貝爾的資本支出可以達到 15% 以下，這仍然是這個計劃。我們正在透過很多事情來做到這一點，對吧。首先是我們的營運現代化，提高交付效率，將工作負載轉移到雲端。例如實施自安裝功能、雲端中的虛擬維修聯絡中心。我們正在做的所有這些事情都是為了簡化和現代化我們的營運並提高效率，使我們能夠以較低的上限和較低的資本支出預算來經營我們的業務。

Then we're going to get to the to the end of our 2025 fiber build out target, you know, essentially in 12 months or so. Of course, we hope to and we will continue to build in Canada. But you know, we're going to, we're going to determine where we can get a reasonable return on investment from those continued fiber investments going forward. But all of that like that CapEx efficiency and allowing us to run in Canada at less than 15% is going to give us the room to accelerate the Zy Fiber build program and still operate a BCE pro forma US at probably around 16.5% consolidated CapEx. And when we embarked on our accelerated CapEx build in Canada over the last four years, in some years, we were over 20% we'll be able to do the accelerated build and Ziply Fiber footprint and maintain BCE at consolidated 16.5%. So I think that's a very good news.

然後，我們將在 12 個月左右的時間內完成 2025 年光纖建造目標。當然，我們希望並將繼續在加拿大建造。但你知道，我們將確定我們可以從未來持續的光纖投資中獲得合理的投資回報。但所有這些，例如資本支出效率以及允許我們在加拿大以低於 15% 的速度運行，將為我們提供加速 Zy Fiber 建設計劃的空間，並且仍然以大約 16.5% 的綜合資本支出運營 BCE 預計美國。過去四年，當我們在加拿大開始加速資本支出建設時，在某些年份，我們的資本支出超過 20%，我們將能夠進行加速建設和 Ziply Fiber 足跡，並將 BCE 維持在綜合 16.5%。所以我認為這是一個非常好的消息。

Maybe I'll just use my follow up differently for your -- with respect to the comments you just made about the 16.5% pro forma number. Should we translate that 16.5% as more of a steady state number or I'm trying to understand whether at the peak of the rollout in the US I suspect it goes a lot higher than that or am I wrong?

也許我會以不同的方式為您使用我的後續行動——相對於您剛剛對 16.5% 預計數字所做的評論。我們是否應該將 16.5% 翻譯為更多的穩態數字，或者我試圖了解在美國推出的高峰期我是否懷疑它會比這個數字高得多，還是我錯了？

No. So in terms of the, in terms of the information we shared on Monday, which is that we plan to go from, Ziply Fiber currently has 1.3 million households passed and we'd like to get to over 3 million by 2028. That would be done with the consolidated 16.5% is my expectation. I mean more information to come as we close. But that would be that would be the expectation. That's what I was trying to convey in my longer answer at the beginning.

不。因此，就我們週一分享的資訊而言，我們計劃從目前開始，Ziply Fiber 目前已經有 130 萬個家庭通過，我們希望在 2028 年達到 300 萬以上。我的預期是綜合 16.5% 即可完成。我的意思是當我們關閉時會提供更多資訊。但這就是期望。這就是我一開始在較長的答案中試圖傳達的內容。

Jérôme Dubreuil, Desjardins Securities.

Jérôme Dubreuil，Desjardins 證券公司。

First, you mentioned the preferred market that you continue to make investments in digitization and modernization of Bell. And I'm wondering how much further operational improvement you are seeing in the Bell business as it stands right now? And can we maybe be expecting a program similar to what you announced earlier this year? Maybe this could happen every second year or something if there's a magnitude that would make sense going forward?

首先，您提到了您繼續對貝爾的數位化和現代化進行投資的首選市場。我想知道您認為貝爾業務目前的營運改善有多大？我們是否可以期待一個與您今年早些時候宣布的類似的計劃？也許這種情況可能每隔一年發生一次，或者如果未來有一個有意義的程度的話？

Well, we're okay, so thank you Jerome, like we're so let me break that up into two parts. The transformation work or journey continues, right? Because we're in the early days of some of the programs to harness the benefits of technology. So moving all our core consumer products to a single ordering and billing AR architecture, we're in the process of doing that in Ontario and Quebec and then there's other regions to bring on board over time and other business segments beyond the consumer business over time. So that's going to bring benefits as we migrate more of our business lines and more of our regions onto a modernized ordering and billing architecture.

好吧，我們很好，所以謝謝傑羅姆，就像我們一樣，讓我把它分成兩部分。轉型工作或旅程仍在繼續，對嗎？因為我們正處於一些利用技術優勢的專案的早期階段。因此，將我們所有的核心消費產品轉移到單一訂購和計費AR 架構中，我們正在安大略省和魁北克省這樣做，隨著時間的推移，還有其他地區和消費者業務以外的其他業務部門也將加入進來。因此，當我們將更多的業務線和更多的地區遷移到現代化的訂購和計費架構時，這將會帶來好處。

So that would be just one example. The digital platforms and the self serve apps and virtual agents and contact centers in the cloud and all the benefits we'll get there from churn reduction sales increase and the cost to serve that's in the early days. So that's going to ramp customer self install has been quite successful. But again, early days, the more fiber homes we have connected, the more we can enable full self install in the future continuing to move the hundreds more the apps that we have on prem to the cloud.

這只是一個例子。雲端中的數位平台、自助服務應用程式、虛擬代理商和聯絡中心，以及我們將從減少客戶流失、銷售增加和早期服務成本中獲得的所有好處。因此，客戶自行安裝的增加非常成功。但同樣，早期，我們連接的光纖家庭越多，我們就越能在未來實現完全自助安裝，繼續將我們現有的數百個應用程式遷移到雲端。

We're in the early innings of that journey as well so I could go on so on that part of it. We're in the early to mid innings. So more to come that said like the one thing I didn't mention in my opening remarks as we move more of our workloads to the cloud, there's going to be a shift from CapEx to OpEx. And so that's going to have some temporary impact on further margin expansion and then on programs like the one we announced in in February, we continue to recalibrate the workforce. So we're going to continue to hire aggressively in growth areas to the extent we shed lines of business, either through closing them down or selling that obviously has those positions move with the with the buyer in other area. We're going to continue to align our cost structure to revenue streams. We have to do that. So that's how we're going to approach it.

我們也正處於這段旅程的早期階段，所以我可以繼續這部分的內容。我們正處於前半局。因此，隨著我們將更多的工作負載轉移到雲端中，我會說，就像我在開場白中沒有提到的一件事一樣，將會出現從資本支出到營運支出的轉變。因此，這將對進一步的利潤擴張產生一些暫時的影響，然後對我們在二月宣布的計劃產生一些暫時的影響，我們將繼續重新調整勞動力。因此，我們將繼續在成長領域積極招聘，直至我們放棄業務線，要么通過關閉它們，要么通過出售，顯然這些職位會隨著其他領域的買家而移動。我們將繼續根據收入流調整我們的成本結構。我們必須這樣做。這就是我們要採取的方法。

Batya Levi, UBS.

巴蒂亞‧萊維，瑞銀集團。

First, you mentioned that in October, you saw a bit of pricing stability. Do you think that we've seen the worst in terms of the R2 declines? And for Q4, can we start to see maybe just better trends from here and then same question on churn still high, but you're lapping a much higher churn level from last year. So can we expect at least churn to improve annually in the fourth quarter?

首先，您提到十月份，您看到了價格的穩定性。您認為我們已經看到 R2 下降最嚴重的情況了嗎？對於第四季度，我們是否可以從這裡開始看到更好的趨勢，然後關於客戶流失的相同問題仍然很高，但您的客戶流失水平比去年要高得多。那麼我們是否可以預期第四季的客戶流失率至少會逐年改善？

Yeah. I mean I'm sure like I know it -- we'd like to get it lower and we're going to continue to work on getting it lower, but we're happy and pleased with the improving trajectory on ARPU. It's going to depend on Black Friday and and the holiday period, I think rather than making a prediction on where it's going to go. I'll just highlight the obvious, which is if Black Friday and the holiday period is relatively stable, recognizing that those are heavier promotional periods by design, I suppose then we'll be okay. And if to the extent promotions are more focused on hardware than rate plans and that will bode well for service revenue and margins.

是的。我的意思是，我確信我知道這一點 - 我們希望將其降低，並且我們將繼續努力降低它，但我們對 ARPU 的改善軌跡感到高興和滿意。我認為這將取決於黑色星期五和假期期間，而不是預測它將去往何處。我只想強調顯而易見的一點，那就是，如果黑色星期五和假期相對穩定，認識到這些是設計上較重的促銷期，我想我們會沒事的。如果促銷活動更專注於硬體而不是費率計劃，那麼這對服務收入和利潤率來說將是一個好兆頭。

Can you maybe just touch on what the guidance assumes in terms of our expectations for in the revised?

您能否簡單談談該指南在修訂後的預期方面所假設的內容？

Well, on revenues, it's in the revised guidance that Curtis and I highlighted earlier in -- during his remarks.

嗯，關於收入，這是柯蒂斯和我早些時候在演講中強調的修訂後的指導方針。

Lauren Bonham, Barclays.

勞倫·博納姆，巴克萊銀行。

I wanted to ask about immigration impact on wireless net and how much of the change in trends that we've seen this quarter? Usually we have the sequential net uplift in in 3Q. So how much of that changes just from being more targeted promotion really as we've talked about both from the decline in foreign students and how you sort of expect those lower immigration and exportations to impact industry growth next year and beyond?

我想問一下移民對無線網路的影響以及本季​​我們看到的趨勢變化有多大？通常我們會在第三季看到連續的淨成長。那麼，其中有多少變化只是因為更有針對性的促銷，正如我們所討論的，來自外國學生的減少，以及您預計移民和出口的減少將如何影響明年及以後的行業增長？

I think there are a couple of trends here. One, immigration levels are still positive but they are going to slow down year over year. And I think we're continuing to see the benefit of our in our increased focus and doing quite well in this market on a relative basis. But you're right, the overall pie is shrinking. But for us, it's not a big -- not as big an impact because we are increasing our share in that market on a historical basis and you can see it in the prepaid results.

我認為這裡有幾個趨勢。第一，移民水準仍為正，但將逐年放緩。我認為我們將繼續看到我們更加關注的好處，並且相對而言在這個市場上做得相當好。但你是對的，整體蛋糕正在縮小。但對我們來說，這並不是一個很大的影響，因為我們在歷史上正在增加我們在該市場的份額，你可以在預付費結果中看到它。

There are no further registered questions at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Fotopoulos.

目前沒有進一步登記的問題。我現在想把會議交給福托普洛斯先生。

Thanks, Matthew. So thank you again to everybody for their participation on the call. As usual, our team is available throughout the day for any follow up questions and clarifications. Have a good rest of the day. Thank you, everyone.

謝謝，馬修。再次感謝大家參與電話會議。像往常一樣，我們的團隊全天為您解答任何後續問題和澄清。好好休息一天吧。謝謝大家。

Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time and we thank you for your participation.

謝謝。會議現已結束。此時請斷開您的線路，我們感謝您的參與。