Rogers Communications says the on-field success of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team has delivered a brush back pitch to ongoing declines in ad revenue from non-sports, conventional TV.

The Toronto-based telecom and media giant on Thursday posted earnings that topped analysts’ estimates, driven mostly by growth in its base of wireless customers.

While a comparatively minor segment of the overall business, Rogers Media saw adjusted operating profits more than double thanks to the Jays and contributions from Sportsnet, which Rogers calls Canada’s leading TV sports brand.

Along with NHL broadcast rights, Rogers owns the Jays, the team’s home stadium, and TV and radio properties that carry Jays’ games.

The team has been setting record attendance numbers since a run to the playoffs took flight in the summer and the result has translated to the bottom line, with the revenue gain more than offsetting a 2 per cent annual drop in TV revenue at Rogers and across the broadcast industry thanks to a fragmentation of the ad market.

The media performance was also helped by cost reduction in areas such as publishing and job cuts at the Omni multicultural channels.

Rogers Media profit jumped to $58 million from $23 million in the same quarter last year as the success of the Blue Jays boosted advertising and ticket sales. The Jays are set to play the Kansas City Royals on Friday in game six of a seven-game series for the American League championship.

“Media drove much of the profit beat, so sustainability will be a topic of discussion,” said Citigroup analyst Michael Rollins.

Rogers in its earnings call with analysts said the results for the quarter ending Sept. 30 do not capture the playoffs, with further baseball upside expected in the fourth quarter.

The company’s profit profits grew nearly 40 per cent to $464 million from $332 million. Excluding items in the third quarter, profit was 92 cents a share versus the 82 cents expected by analysts. Revenue grew 4 per cent to $3.38 billion versus the consensus Street estimate for $3.32 billion.

Rogers added 77,000 new contract wireless customers that easily topped analyst forecasts, a second-straight quarterly gain.

“Wireless held up well in the marketplace,” said Canaccord’s Aravinda Galappatthige, although he said the rate of customer defections each quarter remains a concern. “We would caution against interpreting this as a wireless recovery.”

Also on Thursday, Calgary-based telecom and media company Shaw Communications posted $276 million or 57 cents per share in fourth quarter earnings, up 44 per cent from last year and aided by the sale of wireless licences to Rogers.

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Revenue from Shaw’s operations that include cable, Internet and business services was up 6.3 per cent at $1.34 billion.

The company blamed aggressive pricing by rivals and a change in regulations that ended the need for 30 days notice to disconnect cable service for a year over year drop in its consumer customer base.

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