Toronto, Canada’s Corus Entertainment, home of kids nets YTV and Treehouse that cut dozens of jobs last month and closed the Vancouver office of its Movie Central channel to reduce costs, announced Thursday that revenues were up in 2007.

‘Corus had an exceptional year in fiscal 2007,’ president and CEO John Cassaday said in a prepared statement. ‘

The company’s share prices were up by 26% and consolidated revenues for the year ending Aug. 31 were US$768.7 million, up 6% from last year. Net income was $107 million, compared to $35.5 million last year.

Corus Television, led by specialty advertising growth of 12% and subscriber growth of 8%, contributed full-year revenues of $436.3 million, up 9% from $401.9 million last year.

The company then pointed to subsidiary Nelvana Enterprises-led ventures with upstart networks Kidsco and qubo as particularly exciting prospects for international growth in the coming year.

During the late-afternoon conference call, Corus’ management team told shareholders that, while profits are up, its programming costs had increased. And in a follow-up interview, a company spokesperson was vague about whether this would affect Corus’s original content output: ‘We will continue to produce the quality and quantity of programming required to serve our audiences.’

In September, Corus, which is majority-controlled by the JR Shaw family, restructured its broadcast operations and post-production departments to eliminate duplication and save money. The television division’s interactive team is now part of Nelvana Studios. Corus also merged the responsibility for acquisitions and original productions Corus Kids, made up of the cable channels YTV, Treehouse and Discovery Kids, Movie Central.

A company spokesperson said its recent restructuring wouldn’t have an impact on projected revenues, ‘but there will be cost savings associated with the changes. Our overall strategy remains the same – to ensure that we have the appropriate structure and programming to best serve our advertising clients and audiences.’

From Playback Daily