Good day, everyone, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Quebecor Inc's financial results for the Q3 2022 conference call. I would like to introduce Hugues Simard, Chief Financial Officer of Quebecor Inc. Please go ahead.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this Quebecor conference call. I am Hugues Simard, and joining me to discuss our financial and operating results for the third quarter is Pierre Karl Péladeau, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Anyone unable to attend the conference call will be able to listen to a recording by telephone or webcast, and access details are available on our website at www.quebecor.com. The recording will be available until February 3 rd, 2023. As usual, I wish to inform you that certain statements that we may make on the call may be considered forward-looking, and we would refer you to the risk factors outlined in today's press release and reports filed by the corporation with regulatory authorities. I will now turn the floor to Pierre Karl.
Merci, Hugues, and good morning, everyone. Before going into the details of our operational and financial performance, I would like to reiterate our commitment and motivation to extend our telecom services across Canada through the acquisition of Freedom Mobile. Although the mediation last week did not bring us any closer to an agreement with the Competition Bureau, we believe that the upcoming Competition Tribunal hearings will demonstrate clearly that the acquisition of Freedom by Quebecor will bring to the rest of Canada the healthy competition and lower prices that have been the norm in Quebec for many years due to Vidéotron's relentless and successful efforts to offer Quebecers the best client experience with its own brand at the lowest prices. On the regulatory front, we're pleased with last week's CRTC decisions related to the implementation of the facility-based MVNO access service and associated tariff amendments, which further solidify.
Sorry, which further solidifies Vidéotron's right to initiate an MVNO service, allowing us to expand our wireless service outside of Quebec and eventually complete and improve Freedom network coverage. We have already initiated the process to seek access to the incumbent network as soon as possible, and we expect the incumbents to negotiate wholesale MVNO rates in good faith to come to an agreement quickly. Should the incumbents decide to unduly drag out the process, as is unfortunately too often the case, we will count on the CRTC to arbitrate without delay so that MVNO can finally become a Canadian reality. With respect to the CBC/Radio-Canada, I would like to comment on the September 16 order from the Governor in Council to refer the matter back to the CRTC for reconsideration and hearing.
While the Governor in Council underlines that the CRTC should consider how to ensure that the national broadcasters continue to make a significant contribution to the creation, presentation, and dissemination of local news, original French language programs and programs produced by independent producers. The decisions do not address the essential question concerning the control of Radio-Canada on advertising revenues and the need to tighten its mandate. The government must allow private companies to survive by abolishing advertising on all CBC/Radio-Canada platforms, just as was decided for CBC Radio and the equivalent in French in 2016. Finally, Quebecor welcomes the tabling of Bill C-18 by the Minister of Canadian Heritage. The bill is the outcome of numerous representations made by Quebecor and many other Canadian media organizations and associations.
It would regulate negotiations between the web giants and news outlets to ensure fair and equitable compensation for the use of the content created by the latter. Quebecor has long argued that to preserve the industry's sustainability and vitality, original content on the various platforms has to be included in this bill. The creation of a payment system is necessary in view of the web giants' market dominance. These platforms use the content produced by Canadian news organizations to generate a significant portion of the interactions of their network and should be required to pay a fair price for it. I will now review our operational results, starting with our Telecom segment. After being named Quebec's most admired telecommunications company 16 years in a row by Léger's Reputation study, Vidéotron once again proudly stands out for the excellence of its client experience with two new distinctions.
First, Vidéotron has just been named the telecommunication company offering the best customer service in Quebec by a Léger survey that ranks us far ahead of Bell and other competitors. Furthermore, the results of the CRTC, I repeat CRTC 2022 mystery shopper project were recently announced, and Vidéotron ranked first among Canadian providers in many categories. First, overall customer satisfaction. Second, best satisfaction rate regarding clarity and simplicity of information provided. Third, the company proposing the most appropriate services. Fourth, the company offering its customers enough time to make an informed decision, and fifth, the company offering the best advice. As you know, we have invested heavily over the past 20 years to establish customer service and satisfaction as a strong competitive advantage for Vidéotron.
It is clear from these independent findings that this solid reputational base on which we have built Vidéotron growth and success over the years still holds true today and bodes very well for our future as Canada's most trustworthy telecom provider. In July 2022, Vidéotron acquired VMedia, an independent telecommunications provider that is well- established across the Canadian market and which offers innovative bundle solutions at competitive prices. VMedia, one of the key partners that will help us speed up the implementation of our plan to create more competition in Canada by offering advantageous bundles that give Canadian consumers more choices and lower prices. As previously announced, we accelerated the deployment of our project Operation High Speed, as we now have underway 94% of the total kilometers to be deployed.
Despite a tight labor market and a challenging supply chain environment, we are increasing the rate at which we are connecting new homes and will continue to do so over the next month to ultimately deliver high-speed internet access to 37,000 households in seven municipalities across the province. Our 5G deployment also remains very much on track as we keep adding new operational sites and widening our coverage outside our main urban areas. Turning to our third quarter results. We have recorded another steady and solid operating performance with a total growth of 99,000 RGUs, which include the acquisition of 50,000 RGUs from VMedia. This is 18,000 more than in the third quarter last year, excluding VMedia, and represent an increase of 144,000 RGUs year- over- year.
In wireless telephony, we recorded 36,000 net adds during the quarter, which bring the last 12 months growth to 126,000 new lines, and our total lines to almost 1.7 million as of September 30th. An excellent performance in the context of significantly lower immigration and population growth in Quebec as compared to the rest of the country. Once again, we captured the largest combined share of growth adds in Quebec with 32.5% for our two brands, Vidéotron and Fizz, according to a recent survey, thus continuing to build market share in Quebec. Our wireless EBITDA increased by 21% in the quarter compared to Q3 2021, a clear indication that we continue to strike the optimal balance between aggressive and profitable growth.
Consolidated wireless ARPU for the quarter improved by CAD 0.76 or 1.9% over the same quarter last year due to higher plan mix, especially for Vid, lower discount and somewhat higher roaming and data usage revenues, offsetting the diminishing diluting effect of Vid. In wireline, we are continuing our efforts, which we mentioned last quarter, to maximize ARPU by better positioning our brands and optimizing the pricing of our illico and Helix platform. These initiatives have led to lower Helix activation in the quarter with a rapidly improving wireline service growth margin. Our Vid TV distribution RGUs increased by 9,000 in the quarter due to the acquisition of VMedia.
Excluding the 17,000 VMedia TV subscribers, we managed to reduce the cable cord-cutting for the third consecutive quarter and by nearly 40% this quarter. We also managed to reduce cord-cutting in our margin wireline telephone service by almost 30% compared to Q3 last year. In Internet, we recorded a growth of 67,000 customers, which include the acquisition of 36,000 VMedia customers. Internet subscribers year-over-year growth was 70,000 despite the continuing intense competition, especially at the lower end of the market. Internet ARPU increased by CAD 0.47 or 0.9% over the last year and sequentially increased by CAD 0.55 from Q2, overcoming the dilutive effect of Fizz and lower plan mix.
OTT video subscribers increased by 13,000 this quarter, fueled by a 39% subscriber growth for Vrai, our new platform dedicated to exclusive, unscripted lifestyle, documentary, and entertainment content, clearly demonstrating the strong appetite for new and original content in Quebec. Turning to our financial results. Our Telecom segment generated CAD 382 million in cash flow from operations in the third quarter, an increase of 13% over the same quarter last year, with EBITDA growing 2.7% and EBITDA margin reaching 52% compared to 15.7% last year. Revenue increased by 0.3% in the quarter, compared to last year, mostly due to higher wireless and Internet services revenue and wireless equipment sales, offset by lower Helix equipment sales, resulting from the slower Helix growth as we optimize our two brand pricing to improve margins.
On the OpEx side, our cost reduction initiatives are paying off with a 7% decrease in the quarter and translating into our increasing industry-leading EBITDA margin. Telecom CapEx spending was down CAD 32 million for the quarter as compared to Q3 last year, as we continue to focus on our strategic priorities and as we operate more efficiently by continuing to lower our cost structure while increasing our investment level on key initiatives such as LTE Advanced, 5G, and network expansion. Turning to media. Our third quarter results continued to be impacted by a difficult advertising context in a regulatory environment that puts us at a disadvantage in our fight against the web giants and the national broadcaster CBC/ Radio-Canada, who is funded by the state with more than CAD 1 billion a year.
Groupe TVA experienced decrease of CAD 20 million in revenue and CAD 17 million in EBITDA for the quarter as compared to last year. In order to compete and maintain our leadership position, we continue to invest significantly in our content offerings, both on traditional and digital platforms. These investments are paying off, as evidenced by the 1.9% market share increase to 40.1% share of the TVA market, I'm sorry, TVA network and specialty services. I will now let Hugues review our consolidated financial results.
Merci, Pierre Karl. For the third quarter, Quebecor's revenues reached CAD 1.14 billion, down 0.4% from last year. Revenues from our Telecom segment were up 0.3% to CAD 942 million, mainly due to the increase from mobile services and equipment and Internet access. Revenues from the Media segment decreased 11% to CAD 170 million in the third quarter, while our Sports and Entertainment segment grew 17% to CAD 57 million in the quarter. Our adjusted cash flows from operations increased CAD 37 million in the quarter or 10% to CAD 403 million, once again demonstrating our continued operational and financial discipline. Adjusted cash flows from operations from our Telecom segment grew CAD 44 million or 13% to CAD 382 million.
Quebecor's EBITDA was down 0.4% to CAD 518 million in the quarter, mainly due to the CAD 19 million decrease in EBITDA from our Media segment, which is explained, as Pierre Karl already alluded to, by lower advertising revenues, lower volume in film production and audiovisual services, and the increase in our investments in content production and acquisition for Groupe TVA in order to maintain our leading position in the television market share in Quebec. Our Telecommunications segment posted EBITDA up CAD 13 million or 3% to CAD 490 million.
Quebecor reported a net income attributable to shareholders of CAD 178 million or CAD 0.76 per share, compared to a net income of CAD 173 million or CAD 0.71 per share reported in the same quarter last year. Adjusted income from continuing operations, excluding unusual items and gains or losses on valuation of financial instruments, came in at CAD 175 million or CAD 0.75 per share compared to an adjusted income of CAD 176 million last year or CAD 0.73 per share. For the first nine months of the year, Quebecor's revenues were down 0.7% to CAD 3.35 billion, and EBITDA was down 1.6% to CAD 1.45 billion.
EBITDA from our Telecom segment grew 2% in those nine months to CAD 1.44 billion for the same period, an improvement of CAD 28 million over last year. As of the end of the quarter, our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 3.23x , up from 2.8x reported at the end of the third quarter of last year, mainly explained by the CAD 830 million investment for spectrum acquisition across the country in the third and fourth quarters of last year. Our balance sheet remains very strong, with available liquidity of nearly CAD 1.7 billion at the end of the quarter and growing free cash flows that are more than sufficient to fulfill on our commitments and fuel our development plans. During the quarter, Vidéotron has secured the committed debt financing required for the acquisition of Freedom.
During the first nine months of the year, we purchased and canceled 7.1 million Class B shares for a total investment of CAD 203.8 million. Finally, the board declared a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.30 per Class A and B shares, which represents a payout of 34% of our free cash flow this year, in line with our target, which we've indicated a number of times to be between 30% and 50% of our free cash flow. We thank you for your attention and would now open the line for your questions.
All right. First question comes from Drew McReynolds from RBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks very much and good morning. A couple for me. Just first, maybe on the VMedia. It may be disclosed somewhere. Can you give us kind of the rough revenue contribution and margin just for modeling purposes, if you can? Secondly, just on wireless market expansion, Pierre Karl alluded to obviously Quebec not benefiting from a lot of drivers that are underway outside of Quebec, across Canada. What are you seeing in terms of expansion here? Are you still seeing some in Quebec, it's just not as strong as the rest of Canada? That'd be great. Thank you.
Okay. On your first question, you know, roughly speaking, revenues of CAD 7 million and margin of about CAD 400,000 , EBITDA margin on the EBITDA for VMedia in the quarter. On to you. Okay, on to your second question, I think that's for Pierre Karl.
Yeah. Well, as you know, you know, the auction took place and there were conditions. The recent MVNO decision by the CRTC released about two weeks ago gives more details on who will be available or will have the right to expand. We were not expecting that we'll see you need to be a telecom operator already. That's reducing the amount of possible players in the MVNO field. You all know that we acquired spectrum in BC, Alberta, Manitoba, and in Ontario. These are the territories right now where we have the capacity to start offering an MVNO service.
We expect, as I mentioned, that, you know, the incumbent, Bell, for example, with our experience previously with them to this environment that, you know, they will respect, you know, what the CRTC has been saying, is to negotiate in good faith. You know, we'll be able to establish a decent rate for which, you know, I guess, both the CRTC, the government and the ISED or the industry minister expect to see competition taking place in the wireless much bigger in the future. We intend, obviously, to be a partner there, but we will not give any, you know, preliminary strategy on our marketing given that obviously we're in a very competitive environment.
Yeah. Just two follow-ups, Pierre Karl, if I may. In terms of the timeline before it all goes to first or final offer arbitration with the CRTC, if it does that, do you have any sense of what that timeline could look like? Second question, just sorry, back to the wireless market expansion. Thanks for those comments. I was alluding more to actual, you know, population immigration, expansion inside the province of Quebec in terms of the wireless market. Just those two follow-ups would be great. Thank you.
Well, first, I would say that, you know, it's not exclusive that we can get an agreement with a provider, so not being forced, you know, to go and baseball arbitration. If we were to go that route, unfortunately, it will continue to take some months. How long, you know, the period will be? Will it be one or two quarters, three to six months? Obviously, you can imagine that, you know, the shortest would be, you know, what we will certainly prefer. We're not completely in control of the process. We, unfortunately, again, experienced in the past all types of things that are slowing the process from the incumbent side. Will this strategy continue to be the situation? I don't know. We expect not.
We could think that, you know, the incumbent will listen a little bit more about, you know, what is the CRTC mindset and also the government, as you think, you know, incumbents challenging decisions in courts and unfortunately, well, fortunately for us, fail to be able to be successful in front of the court. For the Quebec market and the wireless, you know, there is a you know. Well, should we call it a debate? This is certainly, you know, a question mark about, you know, what Quebec is ready to take as the number of immigrants. There's a quote, unquote, "a social and political debate" taking place.
As you think, the Canadian government decided or said that they will get or they will admit 500,000 immigrants on a yearly basis for the upcoming three years or roughly, or the Quebec government said, you know, they would consider 50,000. As you can see, it's a big difference. Is 50,000 good enough for us? You know, we're not, again, in control of what is taking place. We'll certainly, you know, continue to market our product, and we think that we're well-positioned, again, from our two brands, Vidéotron and Fizz. Certainly, you know, we may stop.
We should say that it's a mature market, and this is therefore, you know, we strongly believe that, you know, we need to go elsewhere in other regions in Canada where competition is much lower and for which we believe that we'll be able to get a significant market share of the wireless market.
Super. Understood. Thank you very much.
All right. Next question comes from Vince Valentini from TD Securities. Please go ahead, Vince.
Thanks very much. First question is on Internet revenue and ARPU. Pierre Karl, you mentioned that ARPU increased CAD 0.55 from Q2 to Q3. Can we get a bit more detail on the moving pieces there? I assume some of that is mix changes with Fizz. Some of it may be people moving to higher tiers. I'm specifically interested in if you're seeing some traction on just net pricing gains, which could mean price increases you've made, but not giving away as much of that as you may have been previously through promotional discounts. Are you seeing a bit better traction on that front?
Yeah. Vince, it's a bit of everything, honestly. It's you know, price increases, yes, that we are benefiting from now, on you know, for the whole of the quarter. Mix, you know, is it has been positive as well. You know, as people want more performance and keep wanting more, you know, more speed, more and better performance. Discounts, yes. You know, less discounts, I think we've been certainly in this quarter, we're seeing that we've been a lot more agile and a lot more efficient at reducing discounts. It's basically a little bit of you know, of everything you've said, which leads us to you know, that's pretty good.
You know, CAD 0.55 is sequentially a pretty good performance. It remains a very competitive market, for sure, especially on the lower end of the market. But we're seeing certainly, you know, as part of the speed, the, you know, the redeeming factor, I would say of this market is that it's, you know, the top end of the, of the market keeps performing very well, and we keep being able to, you know, to drive some ARPU up on that front. I think that was a good quarter on internet for us.
Great. Second, moving to the wireless expansion and the proposed deal. When you strip away some of the, what I'd call, strange legal tactics on all sides, it seems like the core issue is ownership of cable or fiber assets being linked to a wireless network. Is it possible for you guys to share any thoughts on that as the ones who seem quite happy with some sort of leased access or some other way of accessing somebody else's infrastructure for backhaul? Are you willing to provide any commentary on how comfortable you are with that type of framework relative to some people's views that wireless doesn't work unless you own a cable network?
Yeah. Well, we'll try, you know, to give you a little bit more. In the meantime, you know, you can easily understand that, you know, we should defend ourselves regarding the situation in front of the court. Well, first of all, what we should say, and you're, you know that, Vince, and I guess that, you know, everybody should know it, Freedom operated, you know, at the beginning, mostly in Ontario. As of today, my understanding is Shaw doesn't own any wireline infrastructure there. So Ontario is still, you know, a large portion of Shaw. Is wireline, as what the Bureau said, necessary, you know, to compete? You know, well, we'll find out.
I guess that in front of the court, you know, they'll try to demonstrate that, and we will listen to what they're trying to achieve. At the moment, unfortunately, we're not able, you know, to find out what will be their arguments. But what we should know also, as you can imagine, is, you know, we negotiated with Rogers the appropriate considerations, you know, to take care of what the Competition Bureau was raising and making sure that, you know, we will have access to infrastructure as efficiently and competitively possible. Those agreements are already negotiated, and we look forward, you know, to get the green light to close the transaction.
Fair enough. One last one, if I can. The DOCSIS roadmap is called, and I'll say it's been topical recently with different players suggesting one route versus another, and some people thinking all fiber is the only way to go. Can we just get your latest thoughts on what Vidéotron's plans are on, you know, whether it's gonna be mid-splits, high splits, FTTX, ESD or move to all fiber gradually? Do you have any updated thoughts on what your technology roadmap is?
Vince, you've got an expert on file on that. On the technical stuff, aren't you? Maybe you should comment on it for us.
Well, you know, quickly, you know, what we can say is first of all, as you know, Réseau Branché, which is, you know, what I was referring to, is completely FTTH, so it's fiber technology, and we will continue to deploy as much as FTTH, so fiber to home, where we have the capacity of doing so. On the HFC, on the coax side, you know, we're working very closely with CableLabs that also are introducing technology that will increase, you know, the speed of what the service in DOCSIS is being able to service customers, since, you know, the implementation of cable internet in 2000.
As you can imagine, the cable industry is pretty big. You know, we got the Americans with Comcast, Charter, and much more. We're working very closely with them on top of, you know, Cogeco, Rogers, and Shaw to make sure that, you know, the cable and the technology will remain competitive in the future and being able to service our customers with the best product at the lowest prices as possible.
Good to know. Thank you.
Right. Next question comes from Stephanie Price from CIBC. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. On the wireless expansion, assuming a favorable outcome for the Rogers and Vidéotron here, how much time do you need to start executing on the national wireless strategy? From the tribunal submission, it's clear you have a sound plan, but I'm looking for more color around your readiness, from a day-to-day operating perspective in terms of, you know, systems, regional teams, et cetera.
Well, quickly, Stephanie, you know, we will say that, you know, we despite the fact that the transaction is not, you know, approved, you know, we have a pretty good idea about, you know, how the networks work, what kind of technology, you know, Shaw/ Freedom is using. We obviously, you know, have a good relationship with wireless equipment suppliers. As you probably know, you know, we do business with the three largest equipment providers. We are a multiple operator company for now two years, since we decided that, you know, we will take Samsung being our 5G operator equipment operator. So we do business with Ericsson, we do business with Nokia, and we do business with Samsung.
We know that Freedom is a Nokia customer, or Nokia equipment related. You know, we have the capacity to work very closely with them, and we'll be able to start, you know, the business very quickly. Obviously this business is already ongoing. We will continue the ongoing business, and we will then start the transition process that will bring us the cost savings in terms of systems, in terms of purchasing power, and in terms of roaming prices and so on, that will bring us, you know, the savings that we factored in our internal models.
Thanks for the color. Then can I also ask about the impact of the acquisition of Distributel by a competitor and how we should think about the wholesale market and wholesale revenue going forward? A few of your cable co-peers have started disclosing retail Internet subscribers. Just curious how big a portion of the TPIA subscribers is in your base?
Yeah. Well, right now, it's certainly not completely easy, you know, to figuring out. As we just found out, we were negotiating with VMedia on the acquisition. In the meantime, what we didn't know during that was taking place, you know, Bell was negotiating with EBOX, you know, the TPIA that we know pretty well in Quebec and same thing for Distributel. We know that, you know, a significant portion of EBOX customers were, you know, related to our own network. We have a TPIA business, which is, I'm not gonna say huge, but certainly, you know, we think important compared to other providers for a simple reason.
I think that, you know, TPIA operators were considering if you build a home, a company much easier to do business with, a company that was providing a better service, a better product at a better price. Will this be, you know, the situation moving forward? Will EBOX customers migrate to the Bell network? Well, we'll find out. If we were to do so, and we're not seeing anything like this right now, well, they run the risk to lose their customers and that's it. Will they continue this route? We'll find out. It's too early, Stephanie, right now, you know, to have the capacity to understand all the dynamics of this new phenomenon where you're seeing incumbents buying TPIAs.
Fair enough. Thank you very much.
All right. Next question comes from Matthew Griffiths from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
All right. Thanks for taking the question. I think I just wanted to follow up first on what Vince was asking about. Pierre Karl, you were mentioning that you're comfortable that you're gonna be competitive in the future. I was wondering if you're concerned about any erosion in competitiveness in the present, particularly when it comes to, you know, upload speeds or even just the marketing cachet, perhaps of offering, you know, much faster download speeds in some cases. And if you can give any timeline on how quickly, if you saw that as a concern, you could respond in the market.
You're talking about wireline or wireless?
Wireline.
In wireline, particularly around the debate around DOCSIS, you know, which is being worked on currently but isn't being implemented currently. If you could just comment on if you're seeing any erosion in competitiveness versus, you know, what competitors might be offering, if that's having an impact, and how quickly you could respond, if you are seeing an impact.
Yeah. That's obviously an interesting question which we, you know, ask ourselves. We made a survey, you know, to figuring out, you know, what are the most important elements for a customer to subscribe to a provider compared to another one. The main element, you will not be surprised by it, to find out that it's pricing. Pricing is the main driver. In terms of service that, you know, we are offering, we certainly, you know, on the high-speed side, 400 Mbps, you know, that was certainly, you know, a pretty good product, for which even in this new era of pandemic environment, you will have a strong capacity to service with a good product.
I mean by that you know, you're gonna service your customers while two or three people or four people are doing Teams or playing on other things. The quality of our product is just fine. It delivers, you know, the service of what customers are looking for. Certainly in terms of prices, we will continue to favor that. Again, you know, we're well-positioned. If we were to move and we were offering 1 Gb in certain areas, as you can imagine, you know, offering 1 Gb is more expensive than offering lower speed. Because you need, you know, new equipment, you need more cards, you need, you know, some upload from some program providers. Our response is similar to what we're seeing when our competitor is offering that kind of service.
To give you know, a final answer on the radar screen that we have right now, there is no significant changes in terms of elements that will move one customer out of, I think, consideration to speed or to, you know, new technology. You know, we can refer, you know, to what we're seeing in the wireless business. We're not seeing it only in Canada or in Quebec. You know, we are seeing this taking place everywhere in the world. A lot of people have been asking how to monetize 5G. That's a pretty interesting question. We never heard an answer to that. 5G will remain a new technology being driven by prices.
If you offer 5G, you know, 20% higher than what you are able to offer in other services, obviously you're gonna be less successful if you were to see prices going down. I guess that the dynamic of the wired and the wireless in terms of new technology introduction are similar. Then therefore, we're seeing ourselves at the right place at the right moment with the right pricing.
All right, that's very helpful. If I could just sneak one second question in. On the CapEx front, you know, you're seeing a nice decline in CapEx, and I'm just curious at how sustainable the decrease is or if we've reached a bit of a, you know, a plateau in the decline, going forward. Maybe if you could just outline kind of what's driving that, because you mentioned in your prepared remarks that your investments are continuing. If that's the case, what are the drivers of the decrease would be helpful. Thank you.
I would like, you know, to emphasize on one thing, which is for us very important. We will give you a little bit more detail. For us, it's not, you know, we will continue. This has been a culture, as you know, as long, you know, since it's in, I would say, inception. As you know, André Chagnon passed away recently. André Chagnon built, you know, this company on providing customers with the best product available and always in front of what the market was considering. We keep this philosophy. It means for us that, you know, we will not gonna cut on capital expenditure that will reduce our introduction of new technology. 5G will always remain, you know, a significant portion of our investment.
You know, for the rest, we need to understand that we will prioritize because as you know, in capital expenditure, you have all sorts of expenses. You're gonna have, you know, information technology. You're gonna have other things, which sometimes we will not consider a priority for bringing new customers, new products. It remains for us a philosophy that we will never, you know, get out of, and we will continue to emphasize on it. Maybe Hugues, you have some few other things to add.
Yeah, just you know on just to add to what Pierre Karl has just said, and just to be clear, you know, this sort of, I'll call it the step function, you know, that we've lived through due to everything Pierre Karl has just said. You know, the non-essential. I mean, you know, the number of projects, those capitalized projects that, as we are now more disciplined and more rigorous, that we just don't do. As we lean out our teams, you know, it just naturally, you know, brings down a lot of non-essential, and non-growth or non-technology related projects, you know, that we've just said, "Yeah, that's a nice to have, but you know what?
This is not gonna benefit us at any point. It doesn't have a business case that's really compelling, so we're just gonna throw it on the side, you know? The step function due to this reduction, it's not gonna be able to. You know, we won't be able to replicate it ever again, you know? It's not true. You can't just, you know, once you've cleaned out the bad or the non-essential leaves, you know, you can't keep doing that every year. Also last point, you know, we were helped on the equipment front as well on the capitalization side of equipment due to Helix. So that's another thing that won't come back.
You know, that's you know, that doesn't mean that we can't continue to be more efficient. We certainly intend to be as disciplined and rigorous going forward. I think if that's your question, you know, the rate of decrease in CapEx is not gonna be, you know, it's not gonna continue at that same rate.
All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
You're welcome.
Right. Next question comes from Jérome Dubreuil from Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. First question is on the VMedia acquisition. Now it's been a few months that you've operated this asset now. Were you surprised by some of the aspects of the market outside of Quebec or of the wholesale business? Maybe some behavior of consumers that would be different from the Quebec market.
Well, first of all, you know, we're not completely, but, you know, we can say that we're a little bit surprised about, you know, what Bell is doing regarding, you know, the desire to acquire TPIA. For us, you know, we acquired VMedia, you know, certainly, you know, to be able, you know, to get access to other regions of Canada, where Bell is already, you know, in EBOX market. So VMedia gave us, you know, the capacity of having interconnection, gave us the capacity to position ourselves in the future positively, you know, if we were to launch more or less through an MVNO, well, when we will or acquire Freedom.
It's a value-added service that, you know, we are having. The logic behind this is quite different than probably the one that Bell had. What will be the effect, you know, moving forward, right now it's probably too early, you know, to know. Certainly our TPIA is looking, you know, to grow, and we already, you know, launched a campaign in Manitoba. Obviously, VMedia is certainly not, you know, like MTS in Manitoba, but, you know, we need to start somewhere, and we will continue for brand recognition exercise at a very competitive prices.
We think that, you know, we'll succeed, coupled again with what the future will bring us in terms of additional services, whatever is through Freedom Mobile or through MVNO that we will offer. I don't know if I answered completely your question, Jérome , but this is, you know, what
Yeah. No, that's fine. Thank you, Pierre Karl. The second one I would have is in terms of the TV platform migration. We're seeing Helix platform installation deal accelerating a bit here. There was kind of this expectation that maybe you could be transitioning to only one platform in the future, and that could improve margins. Is that still a target that you have in the foreseeable future?
I think, Jérome, yeah, what we're doing, just to be clear, is that we have two platforms, right? I mean, we introduced Helix a couple of years ago as, you know, an added value, I'll call it, and, you know, premium type of service platform, but still have illico, you know, which, for a lot of TV users, is, you know, doing the job. I think what we've been doing over the past few months to ensure that we maximize ARPU and margin is really to price and position these two platforms, you know, in a complementary fashion.
You know, if people want or are willing to pay and are seeing, because some people are looking for the added services, the added value of Helix at the right price, then we position it there. We are no longer, you know, migrating against economic sense, you know, away from a platform, illico in this case, that is for many people doing its job just fine, you know. I think that's more what we're doing as opposed to, you know, going to a unified platform as I think you were alluding to.
Yeah. Helix was the introduction of IP television, for which, you know, it was coupled with other services within our environment. We can think of the Internet, we can think of voice recognition. We found out that being a little bit too aggressive in marketing our Helix was probably not the complete best way to achieve our desire to improve our margins in TV distribution. We slowed down our migration or our transition, marketing transition, and finding out that what Hugues said, and we have a solid base of customers that are pleased with what illico service are offering them.
This is not, you know, getting out of the phenomenon which we're seeing as cord-shaving, which is taking place on both platforms. Certainly, you know, less expensive when you need to deploy new equipment, you know, to move from an illico to a Helix customer. We thought that maybe we will be able, you know, to sell the equipment. Again, it's a very competitive market. Bell is there, you know, pushing obviously their product.
We are facing this environment and then therefore I think that, you know, we were open enough, you know, to change, doing this the way that, you know, we were marketing our Helix strategy. At the end of the day, I would say that, you know, we are happy with the results because we've been able to increase our margins in TV distribution, which is what we're looking for, despite strong phenomenon like cord-shaving that is taking place, and cord-cutting, which is not affecting obviously the margin, but, you know, certainly not, a bad business for us or bad, good news for us. It shows up in the way that we're able to slow the decrease of our customer base that we get in the TV distribution.
Great. Merci.
Right. Next question comes from Maher Yaghi from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you for taking my question. Bonjour. I wanted to maybe talk a little bit about the pricing environment in Quebec for cable. You have competed against Bell for a long time, successfully. We've seen recently a surge by Bell in terms of how they market their product, becoming more promotional and as well offering a product with a nice technical specifications in terms of speed, et cetera. Can you maybe share with us what, you know, because we don't see it right now in your results, it's something that's likely to, you know, be more present in future results.
Maybe just in terms of the promotional pressure that you're seeing from Bell, is it forcing you to react and offer promotions that could dilute some of the ARPU that we might see in the cable business going in, you know, in the next couple of quarters? And if not, then at what point will you sacrifice share to protect your your pricing? And the second question I had is just a clarification when it comes to TPIA. Is it a good ballpark to think that TPIA is about 16% of your subscriber base? And finally, my last question is on CapEx. You mentioned that, you know, you qualitatively as discussed what's driving your CapEx decision day-to-day. Can you maybe provide any indications how we should look at CapEx for 2023?
If you don't wanna give a precise number, maybe directionally up or down or flat versus 2022. Thank you.
Maher, I'll try to answer the first question. Yes, it's a very competitive environment. It's more competitive than anywhere else. You know, if you want to look at, you know, prices and it's funny, I mean, about funny. You know, and we. You'll see that, you know, Bell will offer CAD 60 for 1.5 Gb in Gatineau, and you cross the river and in Ottawa, the same product is CAD 75. So it shows that, I mean, there's something happening. Well, we've been seeing all the way, you know, Bell and other incumbents more aggressive, other incumbents obviously in the wireless business and Bell in the wireless business, very competitive in Quebec.
This is why and, I guess that, you know, evidence is there to prove it, that, you know, we need to work on cost, and we've been working on cost, as always, and we will continue to do so. Spoilers is not something that, you know, we agree or accept, and we will continue to work very closely on that. This is the way that, you know, we think that we'll be able to succeed by continuing to have the highest margin of the industry despite a very challenging competitive environment. How far or how down Bell will continue to go, we don't know.
There's certainly, you know, a point where they will have to think about or think twice about, you know, what will be the future of their business. Certainly, you know, again, what we can say is our product and our services, and we emphasize on the fact that despite the fact that I said earlier, the first and most important element for picking a provider against the other is the prices element.
Customer service is also a significant one, and it's known that customer service is certainly, you know, one of the business that we've been investing in for the last 20 years, and it still continues to provide a solid customer base that think twice before moving for, quote-unquote, "a better pricing environment." Because it's funny to have a better price, but when you don't have a service or your product is not efficient and therefore not able to achieve, you know, the full capacity of having it, certainly not the best way for you. To take the proper decision. We will continue to look forward with the same philosophy. Good product, good prices, and operational efficiency.
And just for your other two questions, my on TPIAs in our case, it's just a little over 10% of our of the Internet RGUs that are that are represented by TPIAs in our business. And in terms of CapEx guidance, you know, we're not gonna give you guidance today, but I think stability is probably the word that most aptly will describe our as we're looking forward to 2023 CapEx.
You know, we said, we believe that there's still some efficiency gains to be had and maybe further investments on some of the big growth-related or technology-related projects. You know, maybe slightly up, but you know, what we have in mind right now is more stability than increase or decrease in terms of CapEx on a yearly basis.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Maher.
Next question comes from David McFadgen from Cormark Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for squeezing me in. Just a couple of questions. Obviously, lots of calls or questions on the call today. Can you just comment on VMedia? Did they have Internet reseller agreements in BC and Alberta and all the major urban centers in those two provinces?
Yes, they do. Yeah. Is it operating? It operates across Canada. It operates in all provinces of Canada. Is that what you're asking, David?
Yeah. I just wanted to know, like, assuming you can buy Freedom, then you'd be able to step into those agreements pretty quickly and offer a bundled product, right?
Correct.
Okay. Just on that note, do you think possibly, say, TELUS could try and have a retailer agreement like you and offer a bundle in your home territory? Any thoughts about that?
Everything is possible, David.
Okay.
It may not happen for TELUS, but I guess that's, you know. It is certainly something that they should study or look at, but.
Yeah, I mean, maybe Bell buys Distributel and, o h my gosh, the other one. Could [audio distortion] they please tell? You know, I don't know. Just wondering what your thoughts are on that.
Our thoughts on Bell buying the TPIAs? Is that what you're asking?
Yeah. To prevent TELUS from doing so. Just to protect the existing bit. Defensive effect.
Well, we're not quite sure. I think as Pierre Karl mentioned a little bit earlier, we're not, you know, we're not in the head of obviously Mirko Bibic. You know, at this point, I think we've been successful with Fizz and with, you know, our current strategy in building market share and, you know, and hitting all the, you know, the various price points that seem to be connecting with our subscribers and with our markets. I don't know. We're not seeing. You know, Pierre Karl mentioned it a bit earlier.
You know, we're not seeing at this point any major impact from Distributel or from EBOX or from any of these TPIAs having been acquired. Anyways, you know, let's see. You know, in our case, as we've just mentioned, the case of VMedia has more for us to do with our bundling strategy going outside of Quebec than it has with you know with playing out on prices, which we believe we can achieve on our own, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. One last one. I mean, have you given a sort of a range for CapEx for 2022? Did you give an updated one on this call?
No, we haven't. As I said, you know, if you know, basically, where we'll end up this year is probably gonna be what we're gonna be shooting for next year.
Okay. All right, thank you.
Thank you, David.
All right. The last question comes from Tim Casey from BMO. Please go ahead, Tim.
Yeah, thanks. Pierre Karl , I mean, I think one of the inferences in your negotiated deal with Rogers is you would have a roaming arrangement there largely worked out. Now, I appreciate that there'd be a different discussion if you didn't have Freedom, but should we not assume that you know, you're gonna be able to get to an agreement on an expedited basis, even given your comments about best efforts and arbitration, given the discussions you've already had with Rogers? Is that not a fair assumption?
Well, Tim, I would say, yeah, you're not wrong. We would certainly, you know, favor that type of situation. As you know, we have a lot on our desk right now, moving forward with the court next week. We need to document, you know, our agreement. One of, you know, the consideration was also, you know, the issue we had on joint network. We're working very hard to make sure that, you know, we're gonna be in the best position to convince the court that everything's okay and we're full-blown open for making sure competition will take place in the wireless as quickly as possible. Is roaming part of it? I get that you...
We cannot think that it's not part of a larger agreement because roaming, as you know, is of importance for any type of operators.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you, Tim. I think if we do not have any other questions on the air?
Nope. No further questions in the queue at this time.
Cool. Talk to you at the next conference call and the quarter from now. Thank you, and have a nice day.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the Quebecor Inc.'s financial results for the 2022 Q3 conference call. Thank you for your participation, and have a nice day.